BX  5055  ,S7  1825  V.2 
Southey,  Robert,  1774-1843. 
The  book  of  the  church 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2015 


https://archive.org/details/bookofchurch02sout_1 


THE 


BOOK  OF  THE  CHURCH. 


HONORARY  MEMBER  OF  THE  ROYAL  SPANISH  ACADEMY,  OB  THE  ROY- 
AL SPANISH  ACADEMY   OE  HISTORY,  OF.  THE  ROYAL  INSTITUTE  OF 
THE  NETHERLANDS,  OF  THE  C YMMRODORION,  OE  THE  MASSACHU- 
SETTS HISTORICAL   SOCIETY,  OF  THE  AMERICAN  ANTIQUA- 
RIAN SOCIETY,  OF  THE  ROYAL    IRISH  ACADEMY,  OF 
THE  BRISTOL  PHILOSOPHICAL  AND  LITE- 
RARY SOCIETY,  &C. 


By  ROBERT  SOUTHEY,  Esq.  LL.D. 


pott  Saturate, 


FROM  THE  SECOND  LONDON  EDITION. 


IN  TWO  VOLUMES. 


VOL.  II. 


BOSTON: 


WELLS    AND    LILLY  COURT-STREET, 


BUSS  AND  WHITE,  NEW  YORK. 


1825. 


THE 

MO0%  of  ttyt  ©*>urcl>* 


CHAPTER  XII 


OVERTHROW  OF  THE  PAPA!  POWER  IN  ENGIAND. 

While  the  Clergy,  by  these  cruelties,  excited 
in  the  people  a  just  hatred  of  a  system  which 
was  supported  by  such  means,  other  causes  were 
preparing  the  way  for  a  religious  revolution. 
The  Government,  though  it  permitted  and  even 
encouraged  persecution,  never  deviated  from  that 
course  of  policy  which  Edward  I.  had  begun,  for 
limiting  the  Papal  authority  in  England,  and 
checking  its  extortions.  Full  efficacy  to  what  he 
intended  was  given  by  the  statute  of  Prcemunire, 
in  Richard  the  Second's  reign ;  which,  though 
mainly  designed  to  prevent  the  Pope  from  grant- 
ing English  benefices  in  reversion,  struck  at  the 
root  of  his  power,  by  making  it  highly  penal  to 
procure  from  him  any  instrument  in  diminution 

VOL.  II.  1 


2  CHURCH  PROPERTY  THREATENED,  [chap. 


of  the  authority  of  the  Crown.  The  Popes 
could  never  obtain  a  repeal  of  this,  which  they 
called  an  execrable  statute  against  the  Church, 
and  the  head  of  the  Church.  Even  the  Lancas- 
terian  Kings,  while  they  endeavoured  to  root 
out  Lollardy  with  fire,  adhered  to  the  example 
of  their  predecessors,  in  maintaining  the  rights 
of  the  Crown  ;  and  when  Cardinal  Beaufort,  by 
consent  of  Parliament,  was  made  one  of  the 
King's  Council,  a  protestation  was  required  from 
him,  that  he  would  absent  himself  when  any 
matters  between  the  King  and  the  Pope  were  to 
be  treated. 

As  early  as  Henry  the  Fourth's  reign,  the 
Clergy  Avere  alarmed  by  notices,  that  the  convent 
lands  were  in  danger  of  being  claimed  by  the 
State;  and  though  Henry,  at  the  commencement 
of  his  usurpation,  assured  them  that  he  desired 
only  their  prayers,  and  not  their  money,  they 
made  him,  from  time  to  time,  large  grants,  for  the 
purpose  of  averting  this  danger.  The  measure 
was  renewed  upon  the  accession  of  Henry  V., 
and  a  Bill  was  exhibited,  praying  that  temporal 
lands  devoutly  given,  but  disordinately  spent  by 
spiritual  persons,  should  be  seized  into  the  King's 
hands ;  and  stating  that  these  lands  might  suf- 
fice to  maintain,  for  the  King's  honour  and  de- 
"fencc  of  the  realm,  fifteen  earls,  1500  knights, 
(5200  esquires.  100  alms-houses  for  the  poor  and 


m]      CHURCH  PROPERTY  THREATENED.  3 


impotent,  with  a  surplus  of  20,000/.  for  the 
King's  coffers.  How  many  poor  and  impotent 
were  to  be  deprived  of  support  by  the  proposed 
transfer,  how  many  artificers  and  labourers  thrown 
out  of  employment,  what  schools  of  useful  edu- 
cation broken  up,  how  many  persons  of  studious 
and  retired  habits  cast  adrift  on  the  world,  and 
how  many  houses  of  hospitality  closed,  were  mat- 
ters of  which  the  promoters  of  such  a  scheme 
thought  as  little  as  they  cared.  But  it  was  for 
the  purpose  of  diverting  the  King's  attention  to 
other  objects,  that  the  Primate  advised  him  to 
claim  the  cfOwn,  and  engage  in  the  conquest,  of 
France. 

The  enemies,  whom  the  wealth,  of  the  Church 
tempted  to  assail  it,  were  more  dangerous  than 
those  who  opposed  its  corrupt  doctrines  and  su- 
perstitious practices.  Against  the  latter  it  could 
defend  itself  by  aid  of  the  secular  arm ;  some- 
thing too  was  effected  by  the  learning  and  ability 
of  those  Prelates  whom  Henry  VII.,  the  most 
sagacious  prince  of  his  age,  had  promoted ;  and 
more  might  have  been  done  by  the  timely  cor- 
rection of  abuses  so  gross,  that  the  Romanists  of 
the  present  age  are  reduced,  in  the  face  of  noto- 
rious facts,  to  deny  what  they  find  it  impossible 
to  defend.  But  when  its  wealth  had  once  become 
an  object  of  cupidity  to  the  Government,  the 
1 


4 


HENRY  VIII. 


[chap. 


enemies,  whom  its  corruptions  had  provoked  and 
its  cruelties  incensed,  were  ready  to  league  with 
any  allies  against  it,  and  reform  and  spoliation  went 
hand  in  hand. 

Few  princes  have  succeeded  to  a  throne  under 
such  propitious  circumstances  as  Henry  VIII., 
or  with  so  many  personal  advantages.  He  found 
the  kingdom  at  peace,  the  treasury  rich  beyond 
all  former  example,  the  country  prosperous,  the 
royal  authority  firmly  established.  Trade  was 
flourishing,  the  liberal  arts  in  a  state  of  rapid 
advancement,  and  learning  rising  as  «it  were  from 
the  dead.  A  new  world  had  jusfbeen  opened 
to  the  spirit  of  adventure,  and  the  discovery  of 
printing  was  already  beginning  to  change  the 
character  of  the  old.  To  a  great  part  of  the  na- 
tion he  was  endeared  as  the  representative  of  the 
House  of  York  ;  and  the  severe  temper  of  his 
father,  and  the  fiscal  tyranny  which  his  father's 
ministers  had  exercised,  secured  for  him  that 
popularity,  of  which  the  people  are  always  pro- 
digal when  their  hopes  are  raised.  With  every 
advantage  of  person,  he  united  a  high  degree  of 
bodily  and  mental  accomplishments ;  his  under- 
standing was  quick  and  vigorous,  and  his  learning 
such  as  might  have  raised  him  to  distinction, 
had  he  been  born  in  humble  life*  Had  he  died 
before  his  mind  was  depraved,  and  his  heart. 


WOLSEY. 


5 


hardened  by  sensuality,  and  the  possession  of 
absolute  power,  his  death  would  have  been  re- 
gretted as  a  national  calamity. 

The  splendour  of  his  Court  exceeded  any  thing 
which  had  ever  been  seen  in  Europe.  A  succes- 
sion of  feasts  and  pageants  was  exhibited  there, 
with  so  profuse  an  expenditure,  that,  in  less  than 
three  years,  the  whole  accumulation  of  his  fa- 
ther's reign,  amounting  to  the  then  enormous  sum 
of  1,800,000/.,  was  consumed.  But  it  was  no 
less  remarkable  for  learning ;  in  this  respect  we 
have  the  testimony  of  Erasmus,  that  no  school, 
no  monastery,  no  university  equalled  it.  Both  in 
his  prodigality,  and  in  his  patronage  of  letters, 
the  King  was  encouraged  by  his  favourite,  Wol- 
sey,  the  most  munificent  of  men.  Under  his  ad- 
ministration, the  disorders  of  the  Clergy  were 
repressed,  men  of  worth  and  learning  were  pro- 
moted in  the  Church,  libraries  were  formed,  and 
the  study  of  Greek  and  Hebrew  introduced  at 
Oxford.  The  practices  and  doctrines  of  the 
Church,  Wolsey  took  as  he  found,  and  so  he 
would  have  left  them ;  but  he  removed  its  igno- 
rance, reformed  its  manners,  and  might  have  ena- 
bled it  yet  awhile  to  have  supported  itself  by  the 
improvements  which  it  derived  from  his  libera- 
lity and  love  of  learning,  if  a  more  perilous  but 
needful  reformation  had  not  commenced,  when 
Luther  proclaimed  the   principles   of  religious 


6 


HENRY  VIII. 


[chap. 


liberty  which  he  had  derived  from  Huss,  and 
Huss  from  Wicliffe. 

Little  could  it  have  been  apprehended,  when 
Henry  engaged  in  controversy  with  Luther,  and 
for  so  doing  obtained  from  the  Pope  the  title  of 
Defender  of  the  Faith,  that  the  reformation,  under 
his  auspices,  would  be  introduced  into  England. 
A  speech  of  the  Court  Fool  upon  that  occasion 
has  been' preserved  :  "O,  good  Harry,  let  thou 
and  I  defend  one  another,  and  let  the  Faith  alone 
to  defend  itself/'  The  same  turn  of  mind  which 
led  him  thus  to  come  forward  as  the  champion 
of  the  Church,  became,  accidentally,  the  cause 
of  his  defection  from  it,  when  he  applied  his  ca- 
suistry to  the  purpose  for  which  that  art  has  usu- 
ally been  employed,  that  of  making  his  conscience 
conform  to  his  inclinations.  He  was  desirous  of 
male  issue  ;  he  was  weary  of  his  wife,  who  had 
ceased  child-bearing  ;  and  he  was  in  love  with 
Anne  Boleyn.  Queen  Catharine  was  by  manners 
and  disposition  better  suited  for  a  convent  than 
a  court ;  .  .  .  she  was  pious  and  noble-minded,  but 
now  of  infirm  health,  and  always  of  a  melancholy 
constitution.  Had  she  possessed  his  affections  as 
she  did  his  esteem,  it  is  not  likely  that  he  would 
have  fallen  into  scruples  concerning  the  lawful- 
ness of  the  marriage,  because  she  had  been  his 
brother's  widow ;  but  the  scruple  accorded  with 
his  wishes ;  and  it  suited  also  so  well  with  hi= 


XII.] 


HENRY  VIII. 


7 


predilection  for  subtleties,  that,  from  whatever 
motive  it  may  at  first  have  been  entertained,  there 
is  abundant  proof  of  his  having  been  sincere  in  it 
when  the  question  was  brought  before  the  world. 

The  question  is  one  which  admits  of  an  easy 
and  decisive  solution.  The  impediment  was  not 
founded  upon  natural  and  moral  law;  therefore 
it  was  dispensable  by  that  authority  in  which  the 
dispensing  power  was  vested  ;  and  having  been 
dispensed  with,  it  would  be  manifestly  unjust  to 
revoke  a  dispensation,  which  had  been  acted  upon 
in  good  faith.  But  any  case  may  be  perplexed 
by  legal  subtleties,  when  law  has  been  made  a 
craft,  and  this  question  was  suited  to  the  age  ;  for 
hitherto  all  active  intellects  throughout  Christen- 
dom had  been  exercised  only  in  spinning  the  snares 
of  disputation,.... and  it  was  but  in  this  generation 
that  a  course  of  healthier  studies  had  been  open- 
ed. The  point  was  so  doubtful,  according  to  the 
notions  which  then  prevailed,  that  the  French 
Ambassador  objected,  on  this  score,  to  a  marriage 
proposed  between  Francis  I.,  or  his  brother,  and 
the  Princess  Mary  ;  and  when  it  came  to  be  dis- 
cussed by  all  the  canonists  throughout  Europe, 
opinions  were  divided. 

The  Queen  demeaned  herself  during  the  pro- 
ceedings with  a  true  dignity,  to  which  history  has 
rendered  justice,  and  from  which,  I  believe,  no 
writer  has  ever  yet  been  base  enough  to  detract. 


9 


HENRY  VIII. 


[chap. 


There  was  a  deeper  sorrow  in  her  heart,  than 
what  her  own  wrongs  occasioned  ;  she  had  not 
offended,  she  said,... but  it  was  a  judgement  of 
God,  for  her  former  marriage  had  been  made  in 
blood.  King  Ferdinand,  her  father,  had  stipu- 
lated that  the  Earl  of  Warwick  should  be  put  to 
death,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  the  succession 
to  her  issue,  and  Catharine  felt  that  this  innocent 
life  was  visited  upon  her  head.  The  Pope  would 
have  made  little  demur  in  granting  a  divorce, 
had  he  not  feared  to  offend  her  nephew,  the 
Emperor;  his  policy  was  to  prolong  the  suit; 
"  whilst  it  depended,  he  was  sure  of  two  great 
friends,  but  when  it  should  be  decided,  of  one 
great  foe."  «A  strange  compromise  was  proposed 
by  Henry,  that  if  the  Queen  would  not  take  the 
vows,  and  thus,  by  retiring  into  a  convent,  con- 
sent to  their  divorce,  a  dispensation  for  having 
two  wives  might  be  granted  him,  which,  it  Avas 
pretended,  was  sanctioned  by  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ;  both  the  Pope  and  the  Emperor  agreed 
to  this,  and  probably  the  only  reason  why  the 
matter  was  not  thus  accommodated,  was  an  ap- 
prehension of  the  just  scandal  which  such  a 
measure  would  excite.  The  Court  of  Rome 
sought,  therefore,  to  protract  the  suit,  in  hopes 
that  the  not  improbable  death  of  the  Queen,  or 
some  other  of  those  accidents  to  which  human 
affairs  are  subject,  might  extricate  it  from  its 


XII.] 


CROMWELL. 


9 


embarrassment.  But  Henry,  who  had  fixed  his 
affections,  such  as  they  were,  upon  Anne  Boleyn, 
with  singular  constancy  for  such  a  man,  during 
the  process,  was  not  of  a  temper  patiently  to 
brook  seven  years'  delay;  and  perceiving  that 
nothing  was  to  be  looked  for  from  the  Pope,  but 
a  continuance  of  studied  procrastination,  resolved 
to  act  in  defiance  of  him. 

Henry's  penetration  enabled  him  always  to  se- 
lect men  of  ability  for  his  service.  Among  the 
eminent  persons  whom  he  had  raised  to  import- 
ance for  their  qualifications,  Cromwell  and  Cran- 
mer  were  peculiarly  fitted  to  promote  the  objeet 
which  he  had  now  in  view,  of  withdrawing  the 
Church  of  England  from  its  subjection  to  the 
See  of  Rome,  the  former  from  interested,  the 
latter  from  conscientious,  motives  .  .  .  Thomas 
Cromwell  is  a  man  whom  the  Romanists  paint 
in  the  blackest  colours,  because  during  that  age 
they  estimated  the  characters  of  men  by  no  other 
criterion  than  their  service  or  disservice  to  the 
Papal  cause  ;  neither  justice,  therefore,  nor  cha- 
rity, is  to  be  found  in  their  representations.  Of 
Cromwell,  it  may  truly  be  said,  that  many  who 
have  entertained  better  principles,  have  been 
worse  men.  The  desire  of  obtaining  promotion 
and  keeping  it,  was  his  ruling  motive  ;  and  to 
this  he  made  his  conduct  subservient.  He  was 
bold  and  unscrupulous ;   but  if    any  redeeming 


10 


CROMWELL. 


[chap. 


virtues  may  atone  for  a  time-serving  ambition, 
they  were  to  be  found  in  him.  In  the  most  self- 
ish, the  most  ungrateful,  the  most  cruel  age  of 
English  history,  he  was  generous,  grateful,  and 
compassionate ;  and  it  was  by  the  fidelity  with 
which  he  served  his  first  patron,  Wolsey,  when 
that  munificent  man  was  disgraced  and  ruined, 
that  he  acquired  the  good  opinion  of  the  King. 
Cranmer,  on  the  contrary,  was  a  meek,  unworld- 
ly spirit,  courageous  only  when  the  strong  sense 
of  duty  enabled  him  to  overcome  his  natural  tem- 
per. Widely  dissimilar  as  they  were  in  other  re- 
spects, there  was  a  bond  of  friendship  between 
them,  in  their  generous  and  benevolent  feelings, 
and  in  these  unhappily  little  sympathy  was  to  be 
found  elsewhere. 

By  Cromwell's  suggestion,  Henry  resolved  to 
declare  himself  head  of  the  Church  in  his  own 
dominions;  and  the  same  politic  minister  devised 
a  means,  whereby  the  submission  of  the  Clergy 
to  this  decisive  measure  was  secured.  The  stat- 
ute of  Prcemunire  had  been  so  little  observed, 
before  it  had  been  made  the  engine  for  Wolsey's 
overthrow,  that  almost  all  the  higher  Clergy  had 
become  amenable  to  its  penalties;  and  when  this 
charge  was  brought  against  them,  they  were 
glad  to  compound  by  paying  the  heavy  sum  of 
100,000/.,  and  acknowledging  the  King's  supre- 
macy, with  the  qualifying  clause  quantum,  per 


HENRY  VIII. 


11 


Christ  i  leges  licet.  This  great  measure  was  soon 
followed  by  the  divorce,  which  was  pronounced 
in  his  own  Court,  and  by  his  marriage  with  Anne 
Boleyn. 

Hitherto  the  system  of  persecution  had  been 
carried  on  with  unabated  rigour,  if  indeed  the 
progress  of  the  reformed  opinions  openly  in  Ger- 
many, and  rapidly  every  where  else,  did  not 
rather  provoke  the  Clergy  to  a  stricter  vigilance, 
and  a  more  exasperated  vengeance.  Children 
were  compelled  to  accuse  their  parents,  and  pa- 
rents their  children,  wives  their  husbands,  and 
husbands  their  wives,  unless  they  would  share  the 
same  fate.  The  poor  wretches,  who  saved 
their  lives  by  abjuration,  were,  under  the  name 
of  perpetual  penance,  condemned  to  perpetual 
bondage,  being  distributed  to  monasteries,  beyond 
the  precincts  of  which  they  were  never  to  pass, 
and  where  by  their  labour  they  were  to  indem- 
nify the  convent  for  their  share  of  such  food  as 
was  regularly  bestowed  in  charity  at  the  gate. 
The  mark  of  the  branding-iron  they  Avere  never 
to  conceal  ;  they  were  to  bear  a  faggot  at  stated 
periods,  and  once  at  the  burning  of  a  heretic,... 
for  which  purpose,  every  one  who  contributed  a 
faggot  was  rewarded  with  forty  days'  indul- 
gence ! 

Among  the  martyrs  of  those  days,  Thomas 
Bilney  is  one  whose  name  will  ever  be  held  in 


12  BILNEY.  [chap. 

deserved  reverence.  He  had  been  brought  up 
from  a  child  at  Cambridge,  where,  laying  aside 
the  profession  of  both  laws,  he  entered  upon  what 
was  then  the  dangerous  study  of  divinity ;  and 
being  troubled  in  mind,  repaired  to  priests, 
who  enjoined  him  masses,  fasting,  watching,  and 
the  purchase  of  indulgences,  till  his  scanty  purse, 
and  feeble  constitution,  were  both  well  nigh  ex- 
hausted. At  this  time,  hearing  the  New  Testa- 
ment, which  Erasmus  had  just  published,  praised 
for  its  Latinity,  he  bought  it  for  that  inducement 
only;  and  opened  it  upon  a  text,  which,  finding 
his  heart  open,  rooted  itself  there  : .  .  ."  This  is  a 
faithful  saying,  and  worthy  of  all  acceptation, 
that  Christ  Jesus  came  into  the  world  to  save 
sinners,  of  whom  I  am  chief."  The  comfort 
which  these  words  conveyed  was  confirmed  by 
the  frequent  perusal  of  a  book  which  now  became 
to  him  sweeter  than  honey,  or  the  honey-comb  ; 
and  he  began  to  preach  as  he  had  learnt,  that 
men  should  seek  for  righteousness  by  faith.  It 
was  not  long  before  he  was  accused  before  Cuth- 
bert  Tonstal,  then  Bishop  of  London,  a  man  of 
integrity  and  moderation,  though  compelled  to 
bear  a  part  in  proceedings  which  were  utterly 
abhorrent  to  his  natural  disposition.  The  main 
accusations  against  him  were,  that  he  asserted 
Christ  was  our  only  mediator,  not  the  Virgin 
Mary,  nor  the   Saints:   that  pilgrimages  were 


xii.]  BILNEY.  13 

useless;  and  that  offerings  to  images  were  idolatry. 
Of  these  doctrines,  he  was  found  guilty ;  but  was 
persuaded  to  recant,  and  accordingly  bore  a  faggot 
at  St.  Paul's  Cross.  It  appears  that  Tonstal,  with 
his  wonted  humanity,  favoured  and  wished  to  save 
him ;  he  was  not  branded,  nor  subjected  to  any 
further  punishment,  but  permitted  to  return  to 
Cambridge. 

From  that  hour,  Bilney  had  no  peace  in  him- 
self. Latimer,  who  was  at  that  time  Cross-keeper 
in  the  University,  and  who  was  one  of  his  con- 
verts, describes  him  as  having  fallen  into  so  deep 
a  melancholy,  that  his  friends  were  fain  to  be 
with  him  day  and  night,  fearing  to  leave  him 
alone;  and  seeking  to  comfort  him,  who  would 
not  be  comforted,  not  even  by  religion,  fgr  "  he 
thought  the  whole  Scriptures  were  against  him, 
and  sounded  to  his  condemnation."  In  this  state 
he  continued  nearly  two  years,  till  feeling  that 
death  was  better  than  to  live  thus  self-condemn- 
ed, he  overcame  the  weakness  of  his  nature,  and 
resolved  by  a  brave  repentance  to  expiate  an  of- 
fence, for  which  he  should  otherwise  never  for- 
give himself;  without  communicating  the  pur- 
pose to  his  friends,  he  took  leave  of  them  one 
night  in  Trinity  Hall,  saying,  he  would  go  up  to 
Jerusalem,  and  should  see  them  no  more.  Im- 
mediately he  departed  into  Norfolk,  and  there 
preached,  not  only  secretly  in  houses  among  the 


BILNEY. 


[chap. 


reformed,  but  openly  in  the  fields,  confessing 
how  he  had  fallen,  and  publicly  declaring  his  re- 
pentance, and  warning  all  men  by  his  example 
to  beware  how  they  denied  the  truth,  for  which 
it  was  their  duty,  if  need  were,  to  lay  down  their 
lives.  It  was  not  long  before  he  was  apprehend- 
ed in  Norwich,  for  giving  an  English  New  Testa- 
ment to  a  recluse,  or  anchoress,  in  that  city ; 
and  immediately  Nix,  the  merciless  Bishop  of 
that  diocese,  sent  to  London  for  a  writ  to  burn 
him. 

The  Sheriff,  to  whose  custody  he  was  deliver- 
ed, happened  to  be  one  of  his  friends,  and  there- 
fore treated  him  with  every  kindness  which 
could  be  afforded  during  his  imprisonment.  The 
night  Jrefore  he  was  to  suffer,  some  friends  who 
visited  him,  found  him  at  supper  eating  heartily, 
and  with  a  cheerful  countenance  ;  and  one  of 
them  saying  he  was  glad  to  see  him  refresh  him- 
self thus,  so  shortly  before  he  was  to  undergo  so 
painful  a  death,  he  replied,  "  1  follow  the  ex- 
ample of  those  who,  having  a  ruinous  house  to 
dwell  in,  hold  it  up  by  props  as  long  as  they 
may."  Another  observed,  that  his  pains  would 
be  short,  and  the  Spirit  of  God  would  support 
him  in  them,  and  reward  him  afterward  with  ever- 
lasting rest.  Bilney,  upon  this,  put  his  finger 
into  the  candle,  which  was  burning  before  him. 
more  than  once.    ;'  I  feel."  said  he.  f  by  expe- 


XII.] 


HI'.NEY. 


15 


rience,  and  have  long  known  by  philosophy,  that 
fre  is  naturally  hot ;  yet,  I  am  persuaded  by 
God's  holy  word,  and  by  the  experience  of  some 
Saints  of  God  therein  recorded,  that  in  the  flame 
they  may  feel  no  heat,  and  in  the  fire  no  consump- 
tion. And  I  constantly  believe,  that,  however 
the  stubble  of  this  my  body  shall  be  wasted  by  it, 
yet  my  soul  and  spirit  shall  be  purged  thereby,... 
a  pain  for  the  time,... whereon  followeth  joy  un- 
speakable." And  then  he  repeated  the  words  of 
Scripture,  "  Fear  not,  for  I  have  redeemed  thee, 
and  called  thee  by  thy  name  ;  thou  art  mine  own. 
When  thou  goest  through  the  water  I  will  be  with 
thee,  and  the  strong  floods  shall  not  overflow  thee. 
When  thou  walkest  in  the  fire,  thou  shalt  not  be 
consumed,  and  the  flame  shall  not  burn  thee ;  for 
I  am  the  Lord  thy  God,  the  holy  One  of  Israel, 
thy  Saviour !"  This  text  he  applied  to  himself, 
and  to  those  who  were  present,  some  of  whom, 
receiving  the  words  as  the  legacy  of  a  blessed 
martyr,  had  them  fairly  written  in  tables,  or  in 
books,  and  derived  comfort  from  them  till  their 
dying  day. 

On  the  following  morning  he  was  led  to  exe- 
cution. One  of  his  friends,  exhorting  him  at  the 
prison  door  with  few  and  secret  words,  to  take  his 
death  patiently  and  constantly,  Bilney  answered, 
"  When  the  mariner  is  tossed  upon  the  troubled 
sea,  he  beareth  his  perils  better,  in  hope  that  he 


16 


BILNEV. 


|chaf. 


shall  yet  reach  his  harbour;  so,  whatever  storms 
I  shall  feel,  my  ship  will  soon  be  in  its  quiet 
haven ;  thereof,  I  doubt  not,  by  the  grace  of 
God,... and  I  entreat  you,  help  me  with  your 
prayers,  to  the  same  effect."  The  place  of  exe- 
cution was  a  low  valley,  surrounded  with  rising 
ground,  without  the  Bishop's  Gate.  It  was  chosen 
for  these  executions,  that  the  people  might  see 
the  spectacle  from  the  ascent,  as  in  an  amphi- 
theatre ;  and  from  the  frequency  of  such  spec- 
tacles, it  was  called  the  Lollards'  Pit.  There 
was  a  ledge  upon  the  stake  to  raise  the  victim, 
that  he  might  be  the  better  seen ;  for  the  perse- 
cutors were  desirous  of  displaying  to  the  utmost, 
these  inhuman  executions,  not  understanding  that 
though  many  hearts  would  be  hardened  by  such 
sights,  and  many  intimidated,  there  were  not  a 
few  also  which  would  be  strengthened  and  in- 
flamed. Having  put  off  the  layman's  gown,  in 
which,  after  his  degradation,  he  had  been  clad,  he 
knelt  upon  the  ledge,  and  prayed  with  deep  and 
quiet  devotion,  ending  with  the  143d  Psalm,  in 
which  he  thrice  repeated  the  verse,  ''Enter  not 
into  judgement  with  thy  servant,  O  Lord,  for  in 
thy  sight  shall  no  man  living  be  justified."  He 
then  put  off  his  jacket  and  doublet,  and  remained 
in  his  hose  and  shirt,  and  so  was  chained  to  the 
stake.  Some  F riars  came  to  him,  and  said  the 
people  imputed  his  death  to  them,  and  for  that 


xii.]  BILNEY.  17 

reason,  would  withhold  their  alms ;  wherefore 
they  entreated  him  to  assure  the  spectators,  that 
it  was  not  their  act.  Bilnej,  upon  this,  said  with 
a  loud  voice,  "  I  pray  you,  good  people,  be  never 
the  worse  to  these  men,  for  my  sake,  as  though 
they  were  the  authors  of  my  death,  it  was  not 
they."  The  dry  reeds  were  then  kindled ;  and 
in  a  few  minutes,  Bilney,  triumphing  over  death, 
rendered  up  his  soul  in  the  fulness  of  faith,  and 
entered  into  his  reward. 

The  heart  of  man  is  strong  when  it  is  put  to 
the  proof ;  and  those  were  times  which  tried  the 
heart.  These  dreadful  spectacles  were  attended, 
not  by  the  brutal  multitude  alone,  who  came  as 
to  a  pastime,  and  by  those  who,  for  the  sake  of 
gratifying  their  curiosity,  chose  to  endure  the 
sight :  the  friends  and  fellow-believers  of  the  suf- 
ferer seem  generally  to  have  been  present,  as  an 
act  of  duty ;  they  derived,  from  his  example, 
strength  to  follow  it,  when  their  hour  should 
come ;  and  to  him  it  was  a  consolation  to  recog- 
nise sympathizing  faces  amid  the  crowd  ;  to  be 
assured,  that  in  his  agony  he  had  their  silent,  but 
fervent,  prayers  to  support  him;  and  to  know 
that,  as  faithful  witnesses,  they  would  do  justice 
to  his  memory,  which  else  was  at  the  mercy  of 
his  enemies.  For  it  was  one  of  the  pious  frauds 
of  the  Romanists,  to  spread  reports  that  their 
victims  had  seen  and  acknowledged  their  error. 

vol.  u.  2 


18 


B1LNEY. 


when  too  late  to  save  their  lives,  and  had  asked 
pardon  of  God  and  man  for  their  heresies,  with 
their  latest  breath.  This  last  wrong  was  offered 
to  Bilney,  and  it  would  have  been  fatal  to  his  good 
name  on  earth,  the  falsehood  having  been  believ- 
ed and  published  by  Sir  Thomas  More,  if  Parker, 
in  whose  primacy  the  Church  of  England  was  af- 
terwards established  by  Elizabeth,  had  not  attend- 
ed at  this  martyrdom,  for  the  love  which  he  bore 
the  martyr,  and  established  the  truth  by  his  un- 
questionable testimony. 

Bilney's  example,  in  all  parts,  was  followed  by 
James  Bainham,  of  the  Middle  Temple,  the  son 
of  a  Gloucestershire  knight  Having  been  flogged 
and  racked,  without  effect,  to  make  him  accuse 
others  of  holding  the  same  opinions  as  himself, 
the  fear  of  death  induced  him  to  abjure,  and  bear 
a  faggot.  But  a  month  had  scarcely  elapsed  be- 
fore he  stood  up  in  the  face  of  the  congregation 
in  St.  Austin's  Church,  with  the  English  Testa- 
ment in  his  hand,  and  openly  proclaiming  that  he 
had  denied  the  truth,  declared  that,  if  he  did  not 
return  to  it,  that  book  would  condemn  him  at  the 
day  of  judgement ;  and  exhorted  all  who  heard 
him,  rather  to  suffer  death,  than  fall  as  he  had 
fallen,  for  all  the  world's  good  would  not  induce 
him  again  to  feel  such  a  hell  as  he  had  borne 
within  him  since  the  hour  of  his  abjuration.  He 
was  accordingly  brought  to  the  stake  in  Smith- 


BAINHAM. 


19 


field;  and  there,  to  the  astonishment  of  the  spec- 
tators, when  his  extremities  were  half  consumed, 
he  cried  aloud,  "  O  ye  Papists,  ye  look  for  mi- 
racles, and  behold  a  miracle  ;  for  in  this  fire  I 
feel  no  pain ; ...  it  is  to  me  as  a  bed  of  roses !" 
The  fact  may  be  believed,  without  supposing  a 
miracle,  or  even  recurring  to  that  almost  miracu- 
lous power  which  the  mind  sometimes  can  exer- 
cise over  the  body.  Nature  is  more  merciful  to 
us  than  man  to  man ;  this  was  a  case,  in  which 
excess  of  pain  had  destroyed  the  power  of  suffer- 
ing; no  other  bodily  feeling  was  left  but  that  of 
ease  after  torture;  while  the  soul  triumphed  in 
its  victory,  and  in  the  sure  anticipation  of  its  im- 
mediate and  eternal  reward. 

The  book  which  Bainhara  held  up  in  the  church, 
when  he  proclaimed  his  repentance,  and  his  readi- 
ness to  die  for  the  truth,  would  alone  have  been 
sufficient  to  draw  upon  him  inquiry  and  persecu- 
tion. It  was  Tindal's  translation,  now  one  of  the 
rarest  volumes  in  the  collections  of  the  curious; 
and,  in  its  effects  upon  this  nation,  the  most  im- 
portant that  ever  issued  from  the  press.  Nothing 
more  is  known  of  the  translator's  origin,  than 
jthat  he  was  born  somewhere  upon  the  borders  of 
Wales.  Having  been  bred  up  from  a  child  at 
Oxford,  and  graduated  there,  and  studied  after- 
wards awhile  at  the  other  University,  he  was  en- 
gaged in  the  family  of  a  Gloucestershire  Knight, 
2 


TINDAL. 


[chap. 


Welsh  by  name,  as  tutor  to  his  children.  Open 
house  was  kept  there,  and  the  table  being  fre- 
quented by  Abbots,  Deans,  and  the  other  higher 
Clergy  of  the  country,  the  conversation  turned 
often  upon  Luther  and  Erasmus,  and  other  points 
which  were  the  touchstones  of  men's  minds.  In 
these  conversations,  Tindal  declared  his  opinions 
with  so  much  freedom,  and  prest  them  sometimes 
with  so  much  force,  that,  at  length,  for  his  own 
safety,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  family  which  fa- 
voured him,  he  deemed  it  necessary  to  withdraw. 
He  was  eminently  one  of  those  fit  instruments 
which  are  never  wanting  when  any  great  design 
of  Providence  is  to  be  brought  about ;  a  man  de* 
voted  to  learning,  zealous  for  the  truth,  of  irre- 
proachable life,  and  moderate  desires,  wishing  for 
nothing  more  than  a  yearly  income  of  ten  pounds 
for  his  subsistence,  and  a  situation  in  which  he 
might  teach  children  and  preach  the  word  of 
God. 

Itinerant  preaching  excited  no  surprise  in  those 
days,  because  it  was  practised  by  the  Friars.  He 
preached  awhile  about  the  country,  and  more 
particularly  about  Bristol,  and  in  that  part  of  the 
city  which  was  then  called  St.  Austin's  Green. 
Experience  had  made  him  cautious ;  and  his 
opinions,  when  he  addressed  the  people,  were 
probably  rather  to  be  inferred  from  his  silence 
upon  dangerous  points,  than  from  his  words.  For 


XII.] 


TINDAL'S  TESTAMENT. 


'2\ 


at  this  time  he  had  formed  the  intention  of  trans- 
lating the  New  Testament ;  the  language  of  Wic- 
liffe's  version  had  become  obsolete,  and  it  was 
also  a  prohibited  book.  Tindal  meant  to  render 
it  from  the  original  Greek,  and  entertained  a  hope 
of  doing  it  under  Tonstal's  protection,  whom 
Erasmus  had  so  "  extolled  for  his  learning  and 
virtue,  that  he  thought  no  lot  could  be  more  de- 
sirable for  him,  nor  more  suitable  to  his  purpose, 
than  to  be  received  into  the  Bishop's  service." 
He  presented  himself,  therefore,  with  a  recom- 
mendatory letter  from  Sir  Henry  Gilford,  the 
King's  Controller,  and  an  oration  of  Isocrates 
translated  from  the  Greek.  But  Tonstal's  esta- 
blishment was  full,  and  he  was  taken  into  the 
house  of  Humphrey  Monmouth,  a  wealthy  and 
benevolent  citizen,  who  inclined  to  the  principles 
of  the  Reformation.  This  liberal  man  bestowed 
exhibitions  at  that  time  upon  many  deserving 
men  at  the  Universities,  some  of  whom  rose  to 
great  distinction;  approving  of  Tindal's  views 
and  intentions,  he  engaged  to  supply  him  with 
ten  pounds  a  year :  other  good  men  contributed 
something,  and  Tindal  embarked  for  Hamburg, 
travelled  into  Germany,  where  he  conferred  with 
Luther  and  others  of  the  great  Protestant  Divines, 
and  then  settling  at  Antwerp,  as  the  best  place 
for  printing  his  book  "and  securing  its  transmit 


22 


TINDAL'S  TESTAMENT. 


[chap. 


sion  to  England,  completed  the  New  Testament 
there, 

Tindal  had  perceived,  he  said,  that  it  was  im- 
possible to  establish  the  people  in  any  truth,  ex- 
cept the  Scriptures  were  plainly  laid  before  them 
in  their  mother  tongue,  that  they  might  see  the 
process,  order,  and  .  meaning  of  the  text.  The 
Romanists  understood  perfectly  well  how  little 
the  practice  of  theiF  Church  was  supported  by 
Scripture  ;  and  that  if  the  Ark  of  the  Covenant 
Avas  admitted,  Dagon  must  fall.    No  sooner,  there- 
fore, was  it  discovered  that  copies  of  this  trans- 
lation were  industriously  dispersed  in  England, 
and  eagerly  bought,  than  Archbishop  Warham 
and  Tonstal  prohibited  it,  as  being  corrupted  with 
articles  of  heretical  pravity,  and  opinions  errone- 
ous, pernicious,  pestilent,  scandalous,  tending  to 
seduce  persons  of  simple   and  unwary  disposi- 
tions ;  and  they  issued  orders  and  monitions  for 
bringing  them  in   and  burning  them.  Tonstal 
himself,  who  of  all  the  Romish  Prelates  was  the 
most  averse  to  the  cruelties  in  which  he  was  en- 
gaged, employed  a  merchant  secretly  to  purchase 
the  copies  that  remained  in  Tindal's  hands,  as  the 
easiest  and  surest  mode  of  preventing  their  dis- 
persion.    The  agent  in  this  transaction  was  se- 
cretly a  friend  of  Tindal,  who,  being  very  desi- 
rous  of  correcting  the    translation,  gladlv  sold 


XII.] 


TINDAL'S  TESTAMENT. 


23 


them,  and  with  the  money  Avhich  he  thus  obtain- 
ed, printed  an  improved  edition. 

A  spirit  had  now  been  roused,  which  no  per- 
secution could  suppress.  Dangerous  as  it  was  to 
possess  the  book,  it  was  eagerly  sought  for  ;  and 
of  those  persons  who  dispersed  it,  some  were 
punished  by  penance  and  heavy  fines;  others, 
who  preached  and  avowed  its  doctrines,  by  the 
flames.  A  brother  of  Tindal,  with  two  others 
concerned  in  circulating  these  Testaments,  were 
sentenced  to  pay  the  enormous  fine  of  18,5)40/. 
and  ten-pence;  and  they  were  made  to  ride  with 
their  faces  to  the  horse-tail,  papers  on  their 
heads,  and  as  many  of  the  condemned  books  as 
they  could  carry  fastened  to  their  clothes  all 
around  them,...to  the  standard  in  Cheapside,  and 
there,  with  their  own  hands,  throw  the  copies 
which  had  been  seized  into  the  fire.  But  burn- 
ing the  Testament  appears  to  have  excited  some 
surprise  and  displeasure,  even  in  those  who  re- 
garded the  burning  of  those  who  read  it  as  an 
affair  in  the  regular  course  of  things.  Tonstal, 
therefore,  who  saw  with  what  effect  the  press  was 
employed  against  the  Romish  Church,  requested 
Sir  Thomas  More  to  write  and  publish  against 
Tindal's  translation,  and  the  other  condemned 
books  written  by  Tindal  and  his  coadjutors,  for 
which  purpose  a  license  was  granted  him  to  read 
them.    Well  had  it  been  for  humanity,  if  no  other 


24  SIR  THOMAS  MORE.  [chaf. 

means  had  ever  been  employed  for  opposing  or 
extending  the  principles  of  the  Reformation, 

Sir  Thomas  More  is  represented,  by  the  Pro- 
testant Martyrologists,  as  a  cruel  persecutor;  by 
Catholics,  as  a  blessed  martyr.  Like  some  of 
his  contemporaries,  he  was  both.  But  the  cha- 
racter of  this  illustrious  man  deserves  a  fairer 
estimate  than  has  been  given  it,  either  by  his 
adorers  or  his  enemies.  It  behoves  us  ever  to 
bear  in  mind,  that  while  actions  are  always  to 
be  judged  by  the  immutable  standard  of  right 
and  wrong,  the  judgement  which  we  pass  upon 
men,  must  be  qualified  by  considerations  of  age, 
country,  situation,  and  other  incidental  circum- 
stances; and  it  will  then  be  found,  that  he  who 
is  most  charitable  in  his  judgement,  is  generally 
the  least  unjust.  Sir  Thomas  More  would,  in 
any  age  of  the  world,  have  ranked  among  the 
wisest  and  best  of  men.  One  generation  earlier, 
he  would  have  appeared  as  a  precursor  of  the 
Reformation,  and  perhaps  have  delayed  it  by 
procuring  the  correction  of  grosser  abuses,  and 
thereby  rendering  its  necessity  less  urgent.  One 
generation  later,  and  his  natural  place  would 
have  been  in  Elizabeth's  Council,  among  the 
pillars  of  the  State,  and  the  founders  of  the 
Church  of  England.  But  the  circumstances 
wherein  he  was  placed  were  peculiarly  unpro- 
pitious   to    his  disposition,  his    happiness,  and 


xu.] 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


25 


even  his  character  in  aftertimes.  His  high  sta- 
tion (for  he  had  been  made  Chancellor  upon 
Wolsey's  disgrace)  compelled  him  to  take  an 
active  part  in  public  affairs ;  in  forwarding  the 
work  of  persecution,  he  believed  that  he  was 
discharging  not  only  a  legal,  but  a  religious, 
duty;  and  it  is  but  too  certain,  that  he  performed 
it  with  activity  and  zeal.  "The  Lord  forgive 
Sir  Thomas  More,"  Avere  among  the  last  words 
which  Bainham  uttered  amid  the  flames.  The 
Protestants,  who,  by  his  orders,  and  some  of 
them  actually  in  his  sight,  were  flogged  and 
racked,  to  make  them  declare  with  whom  they 
were  connected,  and  where  was  the  secret  de- 
posit of  their  forbidden  books,  imputed  the 
cruelty  of  the  laws  to  his  personal  inhumanity. 
In  this  they  were  as  unjust  to  him,  as  he  was 
in  imputing  moral  criminality  to  them :  for  he 
was  one  of  those  unworldly  dispositions  which 
are  ever  more  willing  to  endure  evil  than  to  in- 
flict it.  It  is  because  this  was  so  certainly  his 
temper  and  his  principle,  that  his  decided  intole- 
rance has  left  a  stain  upon  his  memory  :  what  in 
his  contemporaries  was  only  consistent  with  them- 
selves and  with  the  times,  appearing  monstrous 
in  him,  who  in  other  points  was  advanced  so  far 
beyond  his  age.  But  by  this  very  superiority  it 
may  partly  be  explained.  He  perceived,  in  some 
of  the  crude  and  perilous  opinions  which  were 


26 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


[chap. 


now  promulgated,  consequences  to  which  the 
Reformers,  in  the  ardour  and  impatience  of  their 
sincerity,  were  blind :  he  saw  that  they  tended 
to  the  subversion,  not  of  existing  institutions 
alone,  but  of  civil  society  itself:  the  atrocious 
frenzy  of  the  Anabaptists  in  Germany  confirmed 
him  in  this  apprehension;  and  the  possibility  of 
re-edifying  the  Church  upon  its  old  foundations, 
and  giving  it  a  moral  strength  which  should  re- 
sist all  danger,  entered  not  into  his  mind,  be- 
cause he  was  contented  with  it  as  it  stood,  and 
in  the  strength  of  his  attachment  to  its  better 
principles,  loved  some  of  its  errors  and  excused 
others.  Herein  he  was  unlike  his  friend  Eras- 
mus, whom  he  resembled  equally  in  extent  of 
erudition  and  in  sportiveness  of  wit.  But  More 
was  characteristically  devout  :  the  imaginative 
part  of  Catholicism  had  its  lull  effect  upon  him  ; 
its  splendid  ceremonials,  its  magnificent  edifices, 
its  alliance  with  music,  painting,  and  sculpture, 
(the  latter  arts  then  rapidly  advancing  to  their 
highest  point  of  excellence,)  its  observances,  so 
skilfully  interwoven  with  the  business,  the  fes- 
tivities, and  the  ordinary  economy  of  life,  ...  in 
these  things  he  delighted,  .  .  .  and  all  these  the 
Reformers  were  for  sweeping  away.  But  the 
impelling  motive  for  his  conduct  was,  his  assent 
to  the  tenet,  that  belief  in  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  was  essential  to  salvation.     For  upon 


XII.] 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


27 


that  tenet,  whether  it  be  held  by  Papist  or  Pro- 
testant, toleration  becomes,  what  it  lias  so  often 
been  called, ..  .soul-murder :  persecution  is,  in  the 
strictest  sense,  a  duty  ;  and  it  is  an  act  of  re- 
ligious charity  to  burn  heretics  alive,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  deterring  others  from  damnation.  The 
tenet  is  proved  to  be  false  by  its  intolerable  con- 
sequences, .  .  .and  no  stronger  example  can  be 
given  of  its  injurious  effect  upon  the  heart,  than 
that  it  should  have  made  Sir  Thomas  More  a 
persecutor. 

The  first  of  his  controversial  works  was  not  un- 
worthy of  its  author.  It  was  in  the  form  of  a  dia- 
logue with  one  whose  mind  had  been  unsettled 
by  the  new  doctrines;  and  the  worse  cause  had 
the  better  advocate.  It  was,  however,  not  un- 
candidly  or  unfairly  managed.  Sir  Thomas  seem- 
ed willing  to  take  the  opportunity  of  comment- 
ing upon  some  scandalous  practices,  while  he 
defended  the  Church  of  Rome  on  all  main  points ; 
and  this  was  done  with  characteristic  pleasantry, 
not  the  less  likely  to  please  because  of  its  oc- 
casional coarseness,  in  good  humour  with  the  dis- 
putant, kindly  in  manner,  always  with  an  appear- 
ance of  reason,  and  sometimes  cogently.  Still 
it  was  strongly  tinctured  with  the  bitterness  of 
the  Romish  spirit,  and  the  heretics  were  spoken 
of  as  branches  cut  from  the  vine,  and  reserved 
onlv  for  the  fire  first  here,  and  afterwards  in 


28 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


[chap. 


hell.  The  dialogue  was  answered  by  Tindal,  and 
More,  in  his  subsequent  writings,  degenerated 
into  the  worst  form  of  controversy,  and  its  worst 
temper. 

Two  men,  of  great  note  anions  the  reformers, 
wrote  in  defence  of  Tindal  and  his  opinions;  Ro- 
bert Barnes,  the  one,  had  been  Prior  of  the  Au- 
gustines  in  Cambridge,  but,  after  bearing  a  fag- 
got, had  escaped  beyond  sea.  The  other,  John 
Frith,  was  one  of  the  Cambridge  men  whom  Wol- 
sey  removed  to  the  college  which  he  had  found- 
ed at  Oxford,  a  proof  in  what  estimation  he  was 
held  for  his  abilities,  conduct,  and  attainments. 
It  was  soon  discovered  that  many  of  these  per- 
sons inclined  to  the  ne,v  doctrines;  Frith  among 
others  :  he  had,  in  fact,  become  the  disciple  and 
friend  of  Tindal,  during  Tindal's  abode  at  Cam- 
bridge. Some  of  them  died  in  consequence 
of  confinement  in  an  unwholesome  cellar;  their 
death  excited  Wolsey's  compassion,  and  he  or- 
dered the  others  to  be  released,  on  condition 
of  their  remaining  within  a  certain  distance  of 
Oxford.  Frith,  however,  fled  to  the  Continent, 
and,  returning  after  a  few  years,  was  apprehend- 
ed as  a  vagabond  at  Reading,  and  set  in  the 
stocks.  The  schoolmaster  of  the  town,  hearing 
him  bewail  himself  in  Latin,  entered  into  conver- 
sation with  him,  and>  finding  him  an  accomplish- 
ed scholar,  procured  his  liberty.    It  appears  that 


XII.] 


FRITH. 


2* 


he  had  come  over  to  diffuse  his  opinions  at  all 
risks ;  and  yet  with  a  fervour  which  approach- 
ed to  enthusiasm  in  his  love  of  the  truth,  and 
his  devotion  to  it,  few  of  the  reformers  were  so 
temperate  in  their  opinions.  In  this  his  own  cool 
judgement  accorded  with  the  advice  of  Tin- 
dal,  that  avoiding  high  questions,  which  surpass 
common  capacity,  and  expounding  the  law  so  as 
to  convince  men  of  sin,  he  should  "  set  abroach 
the  mercy  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour,"  and  let 
wounded  consciences  drink  of  the  living  waters. 
The  manner  in  which  Tindal,  writing  to  him  at 
the  time,  speaks  both  of  himself  and  his  friend, 
will  show  What  these  men  were,  whom  Sir  Tho- 
mas More  described  as  fit  only  for  the  fire  here 
and  hereafter  !  "  There  liveth  not,"  he  says,  "  in 
whom  I  have  so  good  hope  and  trust,  and  in 
whom  my  heart  rejoiceth,  as  in  you;  not  the 
thousandth  part  so  much  for  your  learning,  and 
what  other  gifts  else  you  have,  as  because  you 
will  creep  a-low  by  the  ground,  and  walk  in 
those  things  that  the  conscience  may  feel,  and 
not  in  the  imaginations  of  the  brain ;  in  fear, 
and  not  in  boldness ;  in  open  necessary  things, 
and  not  to  pronounce  or  define  of  hid  secrets, 
or  things  that  neither  help  nor  hinder,  whether 
it  be  so  or  no;  in  unity,  and  not  in  seditious 
opinions  :  insomuch  that  if  you  be  sure  you  know, 
yet,  in  things   that  may  abide  leisure,  ye  will 


30 


FRITH. 


defer.  .  .and  let  it  pass  ;  and  stick  you  stiffly  and 
stubbornly  in  earnest  and  necessary  things.  And 
I  trust  you  be  persuaded  even  so  of  me  ;  for  1 
call  God  to  record,  that  I  never  altered  one  syl- 
lable of  God's  \vord"...(More  had  accused  him  of 
so  doing)...  "  against  my  conscience  ;  nor  would 
this  day,  if  all  that  is  on  the  earth,  whether  it 
be  pleasure,  honour,  or  riches,  might  be  given 
me...  If  there  were  in  me  any  gift  that  could 
help  at  hand  and  aid  you,  if  need  required,  I 
promise  you  I  would  not  be  far  off,  and  commit 
the  end  to  God  ....But  God  hath  made  me  evil-fa- 
voured in  this  world,  and  without  grace  in  the 
sight  of  men;  speechless  and  rude,  dull. and  slow- 
witted.  Your  part  shall  be  to  supply  what  lack- 
eth  in  me,  remembering,  that  as  lowliness  of  heart 
shall  make  you  high  with  God,  even  so  meekness  of 
words  shall  make  you  sink  into  the  hearts  of  men. 
Nature  giveth  age  authority,  but  meekness  is  the 
glorv  of  youth." 

W'.cn  this  letter  was  delivered  to  him,  he  was 
a  prisoner  in  the  Tower,  a  paper  of  his,  upon 
transubstantiation,  written  by  the  desire  of  one  of 
his  friends,  having  been  treacherously  delivered 
to  Sir  T.  More,  who  thereupon  used  all  means 
for  discovering  him,  and  finally  succeeded,  though 
he  repeatedly  changed  his  dress  and  his  place 
of  abode.  To  the  arguments  which  More  pub- 
lished  against  his    treatise.  Frith  replied  from 


XII.] 


FRITH. 


31 


prison,  with  great  ability  and  great  moderation : 
not  shrinking  from  avowing  his  entire  disbelief 
in  a  corporeal  presence,  but  desiring  only  that 
men  might  be  left  to  judge  upon  that  point  as 
God  should  open  their  hearts,  no  party  con- 
demning the  other,  but  nourishing  brotherly  love, 
and  each  bearing  the  other's  infirmity.  The  like 
he  said  concerning  purgatory,  requiring  that  a 
belief  in  it  should  not  be  insisted  on  as  essential 
to  salvation.  Many  peradventure  would  marvel, 
he  observed,  seeing  he  would  have  these  things 
be  left  indifferently  unto  all  men,  whether  to 
believe  or  not,  what  then  was  the  cause  why  he 
would  so  willingly  suffer  death?  "The  cause," 
said  he,  "why  I  die  is  this;  for  that  I  cannot 
agree  that  it  should  be  necessarily  determined  to 
be  an  article  of  faith,  and  that  we  should  believe, 
under  pain  of  damnation,  the  bread  and  wine  to 
be  changed  into  the  bodv  and  blood  of  our  Sa- 
viour, the  form  and  shape  only  not  being  changed. 
Which  thiii£,  if  it  were  most  true,  (as  they  shall 
never  be  able  to  prove  it  by  any  authority  of  the 
Scripture,  or  doctors,)  yet  shall  they  not  so  bring 
to  pass,  that  that  doctrine,  were  it  never  so  true, 
should  be  holden  for  a  necessary  article  of  faith." 

Tindal,  hearing  of  his  danger,  encouraged  him 
by  his  letters  to  suffer  constantly.  They  who 
abjured,  he  said,  and  afterwards  repented,  and 
died  to  witness  their  repentance,  afforded  their 


32 


FRITH. 


enemies  occasion  to  malign  their  memory ;  so 
that  though  their  death  was  accepted  with  God, 
it  was  not  glorious,  and  lost  in  great  part  its 
effect  upon  others...."  Your  cause,"  said  he,  "  is 
Christ's  Gospel,  a  light  that  must  be  fed  with 
the  blood  of  faith.  The  lamp  must  be  dressed 
daily,  and  that  oil  poured  in  evening  and  morn- 
ing, that  the  light  go  not  out."  He  encouraged 
him  by  the  doctrine  of  fatalism,  (which  Tindal 
had  adopted,  and  upon  which  More  had  victo- 
riously attacked  him,)  and  by  a  better  reliance 
upon  God.  "Yield  yourself,"  said  he,  "commit 
yourself  wholly  and  only  to  your  loving  Father  ; 
then  shall  his  power  be  in  you,  and  work  for  you 
above  all  that  your  heart  can  imagine.  If  the  pain 
be  above  your  strength,  remember  '  whatsoever 
ye  shall  ask  in  my  name,  I  will  give  it  you,'  and 
pray  to  your  Father  in  that  name,  and  he  shall 
cease  your  pain,  or  shorten  it." 

Frith  needed  not  these  stirring  exhortations 
from  a  friend  who,  as  he  well  knew,  was  ready 
to  act  as  he  advised.  When  he  was  taken  to 
Croydon,  for  examination,  by  two  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's people,  the  men  were  so  won  by  his 
discourse,  and  so  unwilling  to  lead  him  like  a 
sheep  to  the  slaughter,  that  they  devised  a  plan 
for  letting  him  escape,  and  proposed  it  to  him. 
Upon  his  refusing  with  a  smile,  and  saying  that 
he  was  not  afraid  to  deliver  his,  opinion,  thev 


xii.]  FRITH.  33 

asked  him,  wherefore  then  he  had  been  willing  to 
fly  before  he  was  apprehended,  if  now  he  did  not 
think  proper  to  save  himself?  He  answered,  "I 
would  then  fain  have  enjoyed  my  liberty,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  Church  of  God  ;  but  being  now  by 
his  Providence  delivered  into  the  hands  of  the 
Bishops,  to  give  testimony  to  that  doctrine  which 
I  am  bound  to  maintain,....if  1  should  now  start 
aside,  I  should  run  from  my  God,  and  be  worthy 
of  a  thousand  hells.  Bring  me,  therefore,  I  be- 
seech you,  where  I  was  appointed  to  be  brought ; 
or  else  I  will  go  thither  alone."  Being  at  length 
brought  for  final  examination,  before  Stokesley 
and  Gardiner,  the  Bishops  of  London  and  Win- 
chester, both  distinguished  for  the  severity  with 
which  they  enforced  the  persecuting  laws,.... he 
was  by  them  condemned  as  a  wicked  and  stiff- 
necked  heretic,  persisting  with  damnable  obstina- 
cy in  his  detestable  opinions ;  for  which  they  ex- 
communicated him,  and  left  him  to  the  secular 
power  ;  "  most  earnestly,"  said  the  sentence,  "  re- 
quiring them,  in  the  bowels  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  that  this  execution  and  punishment,  wor- 
thily to  be  done  upon  thee,  may  be  so  moderate, 
that  the  rigour  thereof  be  not  too  extreme,  nor 
yet  the  gentleness  too  much  mitigated."  Could 
any  heresy  be  more  detestable  and  more  impious 
than  such  language  ? 

One  Andrew  Hewet,  a  young  tailor,  who  was 

vol.  lu  3 


34 


FRITH. 


[chap. 


taken  up  as  a  suspected  person,  and  on  his  ex- 
amination had  declared,  that  he  believed  concern- 
ing the  Sacrament  as  Frith  did  ;  was  told,  that  if 
he  persisted  in  that  opinion,  he  should  be  burnt 
with  him.  And  upon  his  expressing  his  resolu- 
tion to  follow  Frith's  example,  he  was  sent  to  the 
same  prison,  and  taken  with  him  to  Smithfield, 
where  they  were  fastened  to  the  same  stake,  back 
to  back.  The  Romanists  notice  the  simple  sin- 
cerity of  this  young  man  with  a  sneer,  and  make 
no  remark  upon  the  execrable  inhumanity  of 
those  who  burnt  him  alive  for  it.  When  they 
were  at  the  stake,  a  priest  admonished  the  peo- 
ple in  no  wise  to  pray  for  them,  no  more  than 
they  would  for  a  dog ;  words  which  excited  in- 
dignation in  the  multitude,  but  moved  Frith  only 
to  a  compassionate  smile,  and  a  prayer- that  the 
Lord  would  forgive  such  persecutors.  He  suf- 
fered with  that  constancy  which  was  to  be  ex- 
pected from  so  true  a  courage,  and  so  firm  a 
faith ;  and  the  last  expression  which  could  be 
noticed,  was  one  of  thankfulness,  that  the  wind 
having  carried  the  force  of  the  fire  to  the  other 
side  of  the  stake,  had  shortened  the  sufferings  of 
his  companion  in  martyrdom.  Tindal  did  not 
long  survive  his  friend.  A  villain,  by  name 
Henry  Philips,  who  had  been  an  English  student 
at  Louvain,  by  a  long  and  most  odious  scheme 
r»f  treachery,  betrayed  him  into  the  hands  of  the 


xn.J  TINDAL.  35 

Emperor's  Court  at  Brussels  ;  and  he  was  put  to 
death  at  Vilvorde,  by  a  more  merciful  martyr- 
dom than  would  have  been  his  lot  in  England, 
being  strangled  at  the  stake  before  he  was 
burnt. 

To  so  excellent  a  man  as  Tindal,  who  was 
"  without  spot  or  blemish  of  rancour  or  malice, 
full  of  mercy  and  compassion,  so  that  no  man 
living  was  able  to  reprove  him  of  any  kind  of  sin 
or  crime,"  (thus  he  is  described  by  those  who 
knew  him,)  death  could  at  no  time  be  unwel- 
come in  such  a  cause.  And  he  had  already  seen, 
that  through  his  efforts,  though  not  by  his  means, 
his  countrymen  would  have  the  Scriptures  in 
their  own  tongue,  and  thus  his  heart's  desire 
would  be  accomplished.  Henry's  marriage  with 
Anne  Boleyn,  as  it  had  been  preceded  by  his 
separation  from  the  authority  of  the  Church  of 
Rome,  was  followed  by  a  reformation  of  its  doc- 
trines. Upon  Warham's  death,  Cranmer  was 
made  Primate  ;  one  of  his  first  measures  was  to 
procure  a  resolution  from  both  houses  of  convo- 
cation, to  request  his  Majesty  that  the  Scriptures 
should  be  translated  by  some  learned  men,  whom 
he  should  appoint,  and  delivered  unto  the  people 
according  to  their  learning ;  and  before  Tindal's 
martyrdom,  Miles  Coverdale's  bible  was  allowed 
to  be  used.  Tindal  had  published  the  Pentateuch 
and  the  Book  of  Jonah  from  the  Hebrew ;  the 
3 


x 


ob  THE  BIBLE.  [chap. 

Psalter,  and  some  other  portions,  had  been  pub- 
lished by  George  Jove,  but  Coverdale's  was  a 
complete  version;  and  this  book,  printed,  it  is 
supposed,  at  Zurich,  was  not  only  allowed  in 
England,  but  its  use  enjoined  ;  injunctions  to 
the  Clergy  being  issued  by  the  King's  authority, 
that  the  whole  Bible,  both  in  Latin  and  English, 
should  be  placed  in  the  quire  of  every  parish 
church  ;  and  that  all  men  should  be  encouraged 
and  exhorted  to  read  it  as  the  very  word  of  God, 
that  thereby  they  might  the  better  know  their 
duty  to  God,  their  sovereign  lord  the  King,  and 
their  neighbour. 

This  most  important  change  was  brought  about 
by  Cranmer,  with  Cromwell's  aid,  and  through 
the  Queen's  favour.  The  decided  manner  in 
which  Anne  Boleyn  promoted  the  great  religious 
change  occasioned  by  Henry's  desire  of  marry- 
ing her,  has  given  historical  importance  to  a  life, 
which  otherwise  would  only  have  afforded  a  theme 
for  tragedy.  Of  what  importance  it  was  to  the 
Reformation,  may  be  seen  by  the  fiendish  malig- 
nity with  which  her  story  has  been  blackened. 
That  event,  to  which  England  owes  her  civil 
as  well  as  her  intellectual  freedom,  is  repre- 
sented by  the  Romanists  as  disgraceful  in  its 
origin,  flagitious  in  its  course,  and  fatal  in  its 
end.  The  Church  of  England  canonizes  none  of 
its  benefactors ;  it  is  even  blameable  for  pay- 


HI.] 


ANNE  BOLEYN. 


31 


ing  no  honours  to  the  memory  of  those  virtuous 
men  by  whose  exertions  it  was  founded,  and  who 
laid  down  their  lives  in  its  service.  It  regards 
Anne  Boleyn  as  a  woman,  who  encouraged  in 
the  King  an  attachment,  from  which  the  sense  of 
duty  ought  to  have  made  her  turn  away.  The 
splendour  of  a  crown  had  dazzled  her ;  and  he 
who  beholds  in  the  events  of  this  world  that 
moral  government,  which  is  sufficiently  apparent, 
sees  that  in  her  otherwise  unmerited  fate,  she 
was  punished  for  this  offence.  But  the  Romanists 
were  in  that  age  so  accustomed  to  falsehood,  that 
they  could  not  abstain  from  it,  even  when  truth 
might  have  served  their  cause.  With  character- 
istic effrontery  they  asserted,  that  her  mother 
and  her  sister  had  both  been  mistresses  of  the 
King ;  that  she  was  his  own  daughter ;  and  that 
her  nominal  father,  Sir  Thomas  Boleyn,  reminded 
him  of  this,  to  prevent,  if  possible,  the  incestuous 
marriage,  but  in  vain.  They  described  her  as  a 
monster  of  deformity  and  wickedness.  In  this 
spirit  their  histories  of  our  Reformation  were 
composed,  till  they  perceived  that  such  coarse 
calumnies  could  no  longer  be  palmed  upon  the 
world,  and  then  they  past  into  an  insidious  strain, 
little  less  malicious,  and  not  more  faithful. 

It  was  by  Queen  Anne's  influence  that  Bil- 
ney's  convert,  Latimer,  was  made  Bishop  of  Wor- 
cester.   He,  more  than  any  other  man,  promoted 


38 


LATIMER. 


[chap. 


the  Reformation  by  his  preaching.  The  straight- 
forward honesty  of  his  remarks,  the  liveliness  of 
his  illustrations,  his  homely  wit,  his  racy  man- 
ner, his  manly  freedom,  the  playfulness  of  his 
temper,  the  simplicity  of  his  heart,  the  sincerity 
of  his  understanding,  gave  life  and  vigour  to  his 
sermons,  when  they  were  delivered,  and  render 
them  now  the  most  amusing  productions  of  that 
age,  and  to  us,  perhaps,  the  most  valuable.  The 
public  feeling  was  now  in  favour  of  reformation, 
though  even  the  leaders  in  that  work  knew  not 
as  yet  how  far  they  should  proceed.  But  the 
Romanists  had  injured  their  own  cause,  and  the 
martyrs  had  not  offered  up  their  lives  in  vain. 
Frith's  case,  in  particular,  had  shocked  the  peo- 
ple. They  had  seen  him  kiss  the  stake,  and  suf- 
fer with  the  calm  intrepidity  of  conscious  virtue, 
full  of  hope  and  faith  ;  and  when  they  saw  so 
young,  so  learned,  and  so  exemplary  a  man  put 
to  this  inhuman  death,  for  no  crime,  .  .  not  even 
for  teaching  heretical  doctrines,  but  merely  be- 
cause he  would  not  affirm  that  a  belief  in  purga- 
tory and  in  the  corporeal  presence  was  necessary 
to  salvation,  many  even  of  those  who  believed  in 
both,  were  shocked  at  the  atrocious  iniquity  of 
the  sentence.  The  effect  appeared  in  Parlia- 
ment ;  and  an  act  was  passed,  by  which  the 
Clergy  were  deprived  of  the  power  of  commit- 
«in<r  men  on  suspicion  of  heresv,  or  proceeding 


xii.]  THE  MAID  OF  KENT.  39 

against  them  without  presentment  or  accusation. 
Presentments  by  two  witnesses  at  least  were  re- 
quired, and  then  they  were  to  be  tried  in  open 
court.  In  other  respects,  the  laws,  inhuman  as 
they  were,  were  left  in  force.  The  age  was  not 
yet  ripe  for  further  mitigation,  but  this  was  a 
great  and  important  step. 

The  Romanists  injured  themselves  by  their 
craft,  as  well  as  their  cruelty.  A  Nun  in  Kent 
was  encouraged  to  feign  revelations ;  at  first,  for 
the  purpose  of  bringing  a  particular  image  into 
repute,...afterwards,  a  political  bearing  was  given 
to  the  imposture  :  she  declared  strongly  against 
the  divorce  while  the  cause  was  pending,  and 
predicted,  that  if  Henry  persisted  in  his  purpose 
and  married  another  wife,  he  should  not  be  King 
a  month  longer,  nay,  not  an  hour  in  the  sight  of 
God,  but  should  die  a  villain's  death.  Her  pro- 
phecies were  collected  in  a  book,  and  repeated 
in  Sermons,  particularly  by  the  Observant  Fran- 
ciscans, one  of  whom,  preaching  before  the  King, 
told  him  that  many  lying  prophets  had  deceived 
him,  but  he,  as  a  true  Micaiah,  warned  him  that 
the  dogs  should  lick  his  blood,  as  they  had  done 
Ahab's.  The  ferocity  of  Henry's  heart  had  not 
yet  been  awakened ;  he  bore  this  treasonable  in- 
solence with  patience,  and  noticed  it  no  farther 
than  by  desiring  another  preacher  to  comment 
upon  it  the  ensuing  Sunday.    But  when  it  was 


40 


THE  MAID  OF  KENT. 


[chap. 


perceived  that  the  accomplices  in  this  scheme  of 
delusion,  emboldened  by  impunity,  had  commu- 
nicated with  Queen  Catherine  and  with  the  Pope's 
Ambassadors,  the  affair  assumed  a  serious  aspect, 
and  the  parties  were  apprehended.  They  con- 
fessed the  imposture,  and  with  this  public  expo- 
sure it  might  probably  have  ended,  had  not  other 
accomplices  spread  a  report  that  the  Nun  had 
been  forced  into  this  confession,  and  tampered 
with  her  to  make  her  deny  all  that  she  had  con- 
fessed. She  was  then  executed,  with  five  of  her 
associates,  for  treason,  acknowledging  the  justice 
of  her  sentence,  and  saying,  these  men,  who  must 
have  known  she  was  feigning,  persuaded  her  that 
it  was  the  work  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  because  what 
she  feigned  was  profitable  to  them,  .  .  .  and  thus 
they  had  brought  themselves  and  her  to  this  de- 
served end. 

Among  the  persons  who  were  implicated  for 
misprision  of  treason  in  this  affair,  was  Fisher, 
Bishop  of  Rochester,  an  old  and  venerable  man, 
but  who  had  been  forward  in  persecuting  the 
Reformers,  and  acted  on  this  occasion  with  cul- 
pable remissness,  for  which  credulity  was  no  ex- 
cuse, .  .  .  Cromwell  advised  him  to  write  to  the 
King,  acknowledge  his  offence,  and  ask  for  par- 
don, which  he  knew  the  King  would  grant.  But 
a  blind  party-spirit  possessed  the  old  man;  he 
wrote  back  saying,  that  having  a  high  opinion  of 


*n.1 


FISHER. 


11 


the  Nun's  holiness,  and  believing,  by  what  is 
said  in  the  Prophet  Amos,  that  God  will  do  no- 
thing without  revealing  it  to  his  servants,  he  had 
sometimes  spoken  with  the  Nun,  and  sent  his 
Chaplain  to  her,  for  the  purpose  of  trying  the 
truth,  and  had  never  discovered  any  falsehood  in 
her:  and  for  what  she  told  him  about  the  King, 
he  thought  it  needless  to  communicate  it,  because 
she  said  she  had  told  it  to  the  King  herself;  and 
moreover,  she  had  named  no  person  who  should 
kill  him,  which,  by  being  known,  might  be  pre- 
vented. Therefore  he  had  not  thought  himself 
bound  to  denounce  her,  and  desired,  for  Christ's 
sake,  that  he  might  no  more  be  troubled  about 
the  matter,  otherwise  he  would  speak  his  con- 
science freely.  Cromwell,  in  reply,  exposed  the 
futility  and  impropriety  of  such  an  answer.  He 
appealed  to  Fisher's  conscience,  whether,  if  the 
Nun  had  prophesied  for  the  King,  he  would  have 
given  such  easy  credit  to  her ;  told  him,  that  if 
it  came  to  a  trial,  he  must  be  found  guilty ;  and 
again  assured  him  of  pardon,  if  he  would  ask  for 
it,  .  .  .  the  Bishop's  persistance  in  refusing  to  do 
this  was  plainly  a  matter  of  obstinacy,  not  of  con- 
science. 

Sir  Thomas  More  also  was  accused  of  having 
communicated  with  the  Nun,  and  being  so  far 
concerned  with  her,  as  to  bring  him  within  reach 
of  the  statute.    But  he  acted  with  more  judg- 


42 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


[chap. 


ment  and  better  temper,  when  Cromwell,  who 
was  his  friend,  invited  him,  in  like  manner,  to 
exculpate  himself.  He  had  heard  of  her,  he  said, 
eight  or  nine  years  ago,  when  the  King  put  into 
his  hands  a  roll  containing  certain  words,  which, 
according  to  report,  she  had  spoken  in  her  trances, 
but  which  he  thought  such  as  any  silly  woman 
might  utter.  Afterwards,  he  had  heard  other  of 
her  revelations  ;  some  very  strange  and  some  very 
childish.  Nevertheless,  thinking  her  to  be  a  pious 
woman,  he  had  visited  her  once  and  desired  her 
prayers,  and  written  to  her,  advising  her  to  be- 
ware how  she  meddled  with  affairs  of  state.  A 
copy  of  this  letter  he  sent  to  Cromwell.  It  ex- 
pressed more  belief  in  her  revelations  than  Sir 
Thomas  ought  to  have  given,  after  she  herself  had 
told  him  that  the  Devil  was  caught  in  her  cham- 
ber one  day,  in  the  shape  of  a  bird,  which  when 
it  was  taken,  changed  into  such  a  strange  ugly 
shape,  that  they  threw  him  out  of  the  window  in 
their  fright.  A  meritorious  deed,  he  said,  had 
been  done  in  bringing  this  detestable  hypocrisy 
to  light ;  and,  for  himself,  he  had  neither  in  this 
matter  done  evil,  nor  said  evil,  nor  so  much  as 
any  evil  thing  thought.  All  that  had  passed,  he 
had  here  fully  declared ;  and  if,  said  he,  "  any 
man  report  of  me,  as  I  trust  verily  no  man  will, 
and  I  wot  well  truly  no  man  can,  any  word  or 
deed  by  me  spoken  or  done,  touching  any  breach 


XII.] 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


13 


of  my  legal  truth  and  duty  toward  my  most  re- 
doubted Sovereign  and  natural  liege  Lord,  I  will 
come  to  mine  answer,  and  make  it  good  in  such 
wise  as  becometh  a  poor  true  man  to  do,  that  who- 
soever any  such  thing  shall  say,  shall  therein  say 
untrue." 

The  explanation  availed,  as  it  ought.  But  Sir 
Thomas  had  resigned  the  Chancellorship,  when 
Henry  had  determined  upon  divorcing  himself  in 
defiance  of  the  Papal  authority  :  this  had  given 
offence,  and  Henry  was  a  man  upon  whose  heart 
enmity  took  deeper  hold  than  love.  He  had  for- 
merly delighted  in  More's  delightful  conversa- 
tion ;  but  when  Sir  Thomas's  son-in-law  congra- 
tulated him  one  day  on  the  favour  which  he  en- 
joyed, the  King  having  walked  in  his  garden  with 
him,  with  an  arm  about  his  neck,  he  replied,  "  I 
thank  God,  I  find  his  Grace  my  very  good  Lord 
and  Master,  and  1  do  believe  he  dolh  as  singu- 
larly favour  me,  as  he  doth  any  subject  within 
this  realm.  Howbeit,  son  Roper,  1  have  no  cause 
to  be  proud  of  it;  for  if  my  head  would  win  him 
a  castle  in  France,  it  should  not  fail  to  fly  from 
my  shoulders,  as  fast  now  as  it  seemeth  to  stick." 
Perceiving  now  in  what  direction  the  current  had 
set,  and  how  probable  it  was  that  some  perilous 
question  might  arise,  in  which  he  must  sacrifice 
either  his  conscience  or  his  life,  the  alternative 
had  not  occasioned  a  moment's  doubt,  and  he  had 


44  SIR  THOMAS  MORE.  [chat. 

endeavoured  to  prepare  his  family  for  the  worst. 
Thi9  he  did  as  if  it  were  sportively,  in  tenderness 
to  them,  alarming  them  once  or  twice  with  a  false 
messenger  summoning  him  to  appear  before  the 
Council,  and  often  taking  occasion  to  remark,  that 
a  man  might  lose  his  head  and  bo  never  a  whit 
the  worse.  When  the  real  summons  came  he 
would  not  suffer  his  wife  and  children  to  accompa- 
ny him  to  his  boat,  as  they  were  wont  to  do,  but 
kissing  them,  und  desiring  their  prayers,  pulled  the 
wicket  after  him.  For  awhile  he  sat  in  the  boat, 
with  a  heavy  heart,  in  silence ;  then  thanked  God 
that  the  field  was  won,  and  resumed  his  habitual 
cheerfulness.  • 

The  matter  upon  which  he  was  called  for  was 
the  oath  of  the  succession,  which  he  had  appre- 
hended. No  other  layman  had  yet  been  sum- 
moned to  swear  it:  in  fact,  there  was  none  whose 
example  would  carry  with  it  so  much  weight. 
Having  read  the  Act  and  the  Preamble,  which 
maintained  the  lawfulness  of  the  divorce,  Sir 
Thomas  said,  he  would  swear  to  the  succession, 
but  not  to  the  Preamble  ;  not  that  he  either  con- 
demned the  oath,  nor  the  conscience  of  any  man 
that  took  it,  but  take  it  himself  he  could  net. 
without  jeoparding  his  soul  to  perpetual  damna- 
tion. They  required  him  to  declare  his  reason?, 
which  he  declined,  and  observed,  that,  seeing  to 
declare  them  was  dangerous,  it  was  no  obstinacy 


MI.] 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


4:. 


to  leave  them  undeclared.. ..This  had  never  been 
allowed  when  men  were  compelled  to  declare 
their  opinion  concerning  the  corporeal  presence, 
and  then  burnt  for  declaring  it !  In  the  conver- 
sation which  ensued,  Cranmer  prest  him  with 
able  arguments,  and  Cromwell  with  earnest  kind- 
ness, to  obey  the  King ;  but  Sir  Thomas  rested 
the  matter  upon  his  conscience,  which,  he  said, 
after  long  leisure  and  diligent  search,  had  con- 
cluded plainly  against  obedience  in  this  case, 
whatever  might  mis-happen.  He  was  therefore 
committed  to  the  Abbot  of  Westminster's  keep- 
ing, till  the  Council  should  have  determined  how 
to  proceed.  Fisher  had,  in  like  manner,  offered 
to  swear  to  the  Act,  but  refused  the  Preamble. 
If  Cranmer's  advice  had  been  taken,  this  would 
hare  been  deemed  sufficient;  he  represented  that 
the  succession  was  the  main  thing,  and  it  might 
well  suffice,  if  the  whole  realm,  by  the  example 
of  these  persons,  should  be  brought  to  maintain  it, 
though  there  might  be  some  who,  either  of  wilful- 
ness, or  of  an  indurate  and  invertible  conscience, 
would  not  alter  from  their  opinion  of  the  King's 
first  marriage. 

The  advice  was  wise  as  well  as  humane,  and 
Cranmer  wisely  rested  it  upon  grounds  of  policy. 
Cromwell  was  not  wanting  in  desire  to  save  a 
man  whom  he  highly  esteemed  ;  but  Henry  was 
a  sovereign  not  to  be  dissuaded  from  his  pur- 


46 


THE  SUPREMACY. 


poses,  and,  judging  of  other  men's  feelings  by  his 
own,  he  looked  upon  More  and  Fisher  as  his  de- 
termined and  dangerous  enemies.  It  was  unfor- 
tunate for  both,  that  they  took  precisely  the  same 
course,  and  alleged  the  afime  reasons  for  it ;  for 
this,  though  but  a  natural  coincidence  in  men  who 
acted  upon  the  same  principles,  was  imputed  by 
Henry  to  a  concerted  system  of  opposition  to  his 
government.  This  opinion  was  strengthened  when 
some  leading  members  of  the  Carthusians  denied 
the  King's  supremacy,  which  it  had  now  been 
made  treasonable  to  deny.  Several  were  brought 
to  trial  for  this,  and  executed  as  traitors;  and 
though  some  of  these  victims  had  expressed  their 
hopes  for  a  successful  rebellion  against  one  whom 
they  called  a  tyrant  and  a  heretic,.  .  .  and  others 
were  implicated  in  the  imposture  of  the  Nun, 
still  suffering  as  they"  did,  for  a  point  of  con- 
science, their  execution  brought  the  first  stain 
upon  the  Reformation  in  England.  For  the  law- 
created  the  offence  which  it  punished  so  severely. 
It  was  essential  that  the  King's  supremacy  should 
not  be  opposed;  and  it  was  necessary  also,  for 
the  establishment  of  this  fundamental  principle, 
that  it  should  be  recognised  by  the  heads  of  the 
Clergy.  The  proper  course  would  therefore  have 
been,  that  this  recognition  should  be  required 
from  all  who  chose  to  retain  their  professional 
rank  and  preferment.     Upon  those  who  made 


HI.J 


THE  CARTHUSIANS. 


17 


their  choice,  rather  to  resign,  no  farther  restraint 
ought  to  have  been  imposed,  than  that,  as  in  other 
cases,  and  under  pains  and  penalties  proportion- 
ate to  the  offence,  they  should  do  nothing  in  op- 
position to  what  was  now  the  law  of  the  land. 
But  the  barbarous  manners  of  the  middle  ages 
had  hardly  yet  perceptibly  been  mitigated;  and 
laws  retain  their  barbarity  long  after  manners 
have  been  softened.  The  nation  had  been  ac- 
customed to  the  most  inhuman  executions,  for 
political  as  well  as  religious  causes  ;  so  that  ac- 
tions, which  no  man  can  now  contemplate  Avithout 
abhorrence,  were  regarded  by  them  as  in  the  or- 
dinary course  of  affairs.  They  who  felt  different- 
ly were  advanced  beyond  their  age,  if  at  this  time 
there  were  any  such  persons,  of  which  there  is  no 
proof. 

Henry's  appetite  for  cruelty  had  not  yet  been 
kindled,  and  he  appears  reluctantly  to  have  put 
these  Carthusians  to  death.  Some  of  them  were 
men  of  family  and  learning.  They  had  at  first 
concurred  with  their  brethren  in  convocation,  to 
acknowledge  the  supremacy  which  they  now  de- 
nied. This  change,  therefore,  seemed  to  him  not 
to  proceed  so  much  from  conscience,  as  to  be  con- 
nected with  designs  which  might  shake  his  throne. 
He  would  fain  have  persuaded  them  to  submission, 
and  used  all  means  for  that  purpose ;  a  scruple 
of  conscience,  whether    right  or  wrong,  is  more 


48 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


likely  to  be  confirmed  than  removed  by  such 
negotiations ;  and  when  threats  are  held  out  to 
enforce  persuasions,  they  are  sometimes  unwilling- 
ly fulfilled,  because  they  have  been  despised,  and 
lest  it  should  be  thought  that  they  were  made 
without  the  intention  of  fulfilling  them.  But  when 
an  evil  course  is  thus  begun,  it  is  persisted  in  often- 
times from  obstinacy  and  pride.  Henry  had  the 
feelings  of  an  absolute  king;  such  in  reality  he 
was ;  the  civil  wars  had  broken  the  power  of  the 
Barons,  and  his  father's  policy  had  completed  what 
that  long  struggle  had  begun;  he  had  rendered 
the  Church  dependent  upon  him,  and  the  Com- 
mons had  not  risen  into  power.  Parliament,  there- 
fore, was  the  mere  instrument  of  his  will,  and  the 
only  check  upon  him  was  what  might  be  found 
in  the  integrity  of  his  Counsellors,  the  best  and 
wisest  of  whom  too  often  found  it  necessary  to  ac- 
quiesce in  what  they  deeply  regretted  and  disap- 
proved. 

When  the  King  perceived  that  neither  impris- 
onment, nor  the  execution  of  the  Carthusians, 
shook  Sir  Thomas  More's  resolution,  he  ordered 
him  to  be  brought  to  trial.  After  the  indictment 
had  been  read,  pardon  was  offered  him,  and  fa- 
vour, if  he  would  lay  aside  what  the  Court  called 
his  obstinacy,  and  change  his  opinion.  "  Most 
noble  Lord,"  he  replied,  "  I  have  great  reason  to 
return  thanks  to  your  honours,  for  this  your  great 


xn.j  SIR  THOMAS  MORE.  49 

civility;  but  1  beseech  Almighty  God  that  I  may 
continue  in  the  mind  1  am  in,  through  his  grace, 
unto  death."  Then  answering  to  the  charges 
against  him,  he  said,  that  if  he  had  not,  as  the 
King's  counsellor,  opposed  the  project  of  the  sec- 
ond marriage,  according  to  his  conscience,. .  .then, 
indeed,  he  might  justly  have  been  esteemed  a 
most  wicked  subject,  and  a  perfidious  traitor  to 
God.  The  offence,  if  offence  it  was,  to  deliver 
his  mind  freely,  when  the  King  had  called  for  it, 
he  thought  had  been  sufficiently  punished  by  the 
loss  of  his  estate,  and  an  imprisonment  of  fifteen 
months,  which  had  impaired  not  his  health  only, 
but  his  memory  and  understanding  also.  Touch- 
ing the  second  charge,  that  he  had  obstinately 
and  traitorously  refused,  when  twice  examined, 
to  tell  his  opinion,  whether  the  King  was  supreme 
head  of  the  Church,  or  no  ; . . ."  This,"  said  he, 
If  was  then  my  answer,  that  I  would  think  of 
nothing  else  hereafter,  but  of  the  passion  of  our 
blessed  Saviour,  and  of  my  exit  out  of  this  mis- 
erable world.  I  would  not  transgress  any  law, 
nor  become  guilty  of  any  treasonable  crime ; 
for  the  statute,  nor  no  other  law  in  the  world, 
can  punish  any  man  for  his  silence,  seeing  they 
can  do  no  more  than  punish  words  and  deeds. 
God  only  is  the  judge  of  the  secrets  of  our 
hearts."  He  protested  that  he  had  never  re- 
vealed his  opinion  to  any  person :  and,  to#th« 
vot,.  if,  4 


so 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


[chap. 


charge  of  having  encouraged  Fisher  in  the  like 
obstinacy,  he  said,  that  when  that  Bishop  desired 
to  know  how  he  had  answered  concerning  the 
oath,  his  only  reply  was,  that  he  had  settled  his 
conscience,  and  advised  him  to  satisfy  his  accord- 
ing to  his  own  mind.  A  witness  was  brought 
against  him,  to  whose  testimony  Sir  Thomas  ob- 
jected, the  man  being  a  notorious  liar ;  and  was 
it  to  be  believed,  that  he  would  communicate  to 
such  a  fellow  opinions  which  he  deemed  it  neces- 
sary not  to  explain  before  the  Council?  Two 
persons  were  called  upon  to  confirm  this  villain's 
evidence,  and  both  declined  doing  it,  saying,  that 
being  otherwise  occupied  at  the  time,  they  had 
given  no  ear  to  the  discourse.  Yet  upon  this  evi- 
dence the  Jury  found  him  guilty. .  .Such  were 
juries  in  those  days. 

Sir  Thomas  then  spoke  resolutely  out,  and 
maintained  that  judgement  ought  not  to  be  pro- 
nounced against  him,  because  the  act,  upon  which 
the  indictment  was  founded,  was  directly  repug- 
nant to  the  laws  of  God,  and  of  the  holy  Church. 
This  kingdom  had  no  more  right  to  make  laws 
for  the  Church,  of  which  it  was  but  one  member, 
than  the  City  of  London  had  for  the  kingdom. 
The  act  was  contrary  to  Magna  Charta,  by  which 
the  Church  was  secured  in  the  possession  of  all 
its  rights  and  liberties.  It  was  contrary  also  to 
the  coronation  oath;  and  he   could  not  think 


XII.] 


SIR  THOMAS  MORE. 


himself  bound  to  conform  his  conscience  to  the 
counsel  of  one  kingdom,  against  the  general  con- 
sent of  Christendom.  He  concluded,  in  his 
natural  mild  temper,  that  as  the  Apostle  Paul 
consented  to  the  death  of  the  protomartyr  Ste- 
phen, and  yet  both  were  now  Saints  in  Heaven, 
so  he  prayed  that,  though  their  lordships  were 
now  judges  to  his  condemnation,  they  might  meet 
hereafter  joyfully  in  everlasting  life.  It  is  related 
of  him,  that  he  had  been  in  the  habit  of  torment- 
ing his  body  by  wearing  sackcloth,  and  that  after 
his  condemnation  he  punished  himself  every  night 
severely  with  a  scourge, ...  so  completely  had  he 
surrendered  his  better  mind  to  the  degrading  su- 
perstitions of  the  Romish  Church,  if  his  biogra- 
phers, who  regarded  him  as  a  Saint,  are  in  this 
point  to  be  credited.  But  this  is  certain,  that 
his  equanimity  never  forsook  him  ;  that,  even  on 
the  scaffold,  he  found  occasion  for  a  jest,  and 
that  he  laid  his  head  upon  the  block  with  the 
cheerfulness  of  a  man,  who,  knowing  that  he  had 
acted  faithfully  according  to  his  conscience,  was 
assured  of  his  reward.  Fisher  was  beheaded  a 
few  days  before  him.  The  execution  of  these 
eminent  men,  the  one  nearly  fourscore,  venerable 
also  for  his  erudition  and  his  virtues,...the  other, 
the  most  distinguished  ornament  of  his  age  and 
country,  was  regarded  throughout  Christendom 
with  wonder  and  detestation.  It  was  though ^ 
4 


52  SIR  THOMAS  MORE.  [chap. 

necessary,  therefore,  that  a  vindication  of  the 
King's  conduct  should  be  written,  and  the  person 
by  whom  this  task  was  performed  was  Stephen 
Gardiner  ;...the  task  was  worthy  of  the  man.  In 
both  cases,  the  work  of  retribution  may  be  acknow- 
ledged ;  as  persecutors  both  sufierers  had  sinned, 
and  both  died  as  unjustly  as  they  had  brought  oth- 
ers to  death.  The  consideration  is  important  in  a 
Christian's  views,  but  it  affords  no  excuse,  no  palli- 
ation, for  the  crime. 

The  King's  determination  to  have  his  supre- 
macy acknowledged,  was  exasperated  by  oppo- 
sition ;  and  he  would  even  have  sent  his  daughter, 
the  Lady  Mary,  to  the  Tower  for  her  refusal, 
there  to  suffer  as  a  subject,  if  Cranmer  had  not 
earnestly  dissuaded  him.  To  his  entreaties  he 
yielded ;  but,  at  the  same  time,  warned  the  Arch- 
bishop, that  this  interference  would  one  day  prove 
his  utter  confusion.  Cranmer  could  not  have  been 
blind  to  this  danger;  neither,  when  the  worst  con- 
sequences, which  might  have  been  apprehended, 
came  upon  him  at  last,  would  he  repent  of  having, 
in  this  instance,  faithfully  discharged  his  duty. 
If  Henry  had  always  listened  to  this  faithful 
counsellor,  the  Reformation  would  have  proceeded 
as  temperately  in  all  other  respects  as  with  regard 
to  doctrine,  and  the  reproach  which  was  brought 
upon  it,  by  the  destruction  of  the  religious  houses, 
would  have  been  averted.    Tolerated  upon  their 


XII.] 


THE  MONASTERIES. 


53 


then  present  footing,  those  establishments  could 
not  be....They  were  the  strong  holds  of  Popery, 
the  manufactories  of  Romish  fraud,  the  nurse- 
ries of  Romish  superstition.  If  religion  was  to 
be  cleared  from  the  gross  and  impious  fables  with 
which  it  was  well  nigh  smothered ;  if  the  Mani- 
chean  errors  and  practices  which  had  corrupted 
it,  were  to  be  rooted  out;  if  the  scandalous  abuses 
connected  with  the  belief  of  purgatory,  were  to 
be  suppressed  ;  if  the  idolatrous  worship  of  saints 
and  images  was  to  be  forbidden ;  if  Christianity, 
and  not  Monkery,  was  to  be  the  religion  of  the 
land  ;...then  was  a  radical  change  in  the  constilu- 
tion  of  the  monasteries  necessary  :  ...St.  Francis, 
St.  Dominic,  and  their  fellows,  must  dislodge  with 
all  their  trumpery,  and  the  legendary  give  place  to 
the  Bible. 

Therefore  Cranmer  advised  the  dissolution  of 
the  monasteries,  as  a  measure  indispensable  for 
the  stability  of  the  Reformation ;  and  that  out  of 
their  revenues  more  bishoprics  should  be  founded, 
so  that,  dioceses  being  reduced  into  less  com- 
pass, every  Bishop  might  be  able  to  fulfil  the 
duties  of  his  office.  And  to  every  Cathedral  he 
would  have  annexed  a  college  of  students  in 
divinity,  and  clergymen,  from  whom  the  diocese 
should  be  supplied.  More  than  this  might  justly 
have  been  desired.  After  a  certain  number  of 
monasteries  had  been  thus  disposed  of,  others 


54 


THE  MONASTERIES. 


[cjuv. 


should  have  been  preserved  for  those  purposes  of 
real  and  undeniable  utility  connected  with  their 
original  institution ;  some,  as  establishments  for 
single  women,  which  public  opinion  had  sanctified, 
and  which  the  progress  of  society  was  rendering  in 
every  generation  more  and  more  needful ;  others, 
as  seats  of  literature  and  of  religious  retirement. 
Reformed  convents,  in  which  the  members  were 
bound  by  no  vow,  and  burthened  with  no  supersti- 
tious observances,  would  have  been  a  blessing  to 
the  country. 

Cranmer's  advice  was  taken,  as  to  the  dissolu- 
tion ;  in  other  respects  it  was  little  regarded, 
though  to  him  it  is  owing  that  any  thing 
was  saved  from  the  wreck.  The  overthrow  of 
these  houses  had  long  been  predicted,  because 
of  the  evils  inherent  in  their  constitution ;  still 
more,  because  of  their  wealth  ;...and  though  the 
danger  had  been  staved  off  in  Henry  the  Fifth's 
reign,  even  then  a  precedent  had  been  given  to 
his  successors,  by  the  suppression  of  such  alien 
priories  as  were  subservient  to  foreign  abbeys. 
For  this  measure,  however,  there  were  just  and 
unanswerable  reasons  of  state.  A  more  danger- 
ous step  was  taken  by  Wolsey,  in  the  plenitude 
of  his  power.  He,  with  the  King's  approbation, 
procured  Bulls  from  the  Pope,  for  suppressing 
forty  smaller  monasteries,  and  endowing,  with 
their  possessions,  the  two  colleges  which  it  was 


XII.] 


THE  MONASTERIES. 


55 


his  intention  to  found  at  Oxford,  and  at  his  birth- 
place, Ipswich. 

The  Observant  Franciscans  had  incensed  the 
King,  by  the  part  they  had  taken  in  the  Kentish 
Nun's  imposture,  and  by  the  boldness  with  which 
they  inveighed  against  the  divorce.  From  re- 
sentment, therefore,  he  suppressed  that  order  of 
Friars  ;  and,  in  this  act,  cupidity  could  have  had 
no  share,  for  they  had  no  lands,  and  their  con- 
vents were  given  to  the  Augustinians.  More 
serious  measures  were  intended,  when  commis- 
sioners were  appointed  to  visit  the  monasteries, 
and  report  concerning  their  state,  their  discipline, 
and  their  possessions.  To  obtain  the  latter  for 
the  King's  use,  was  the  real  object ;  and  in  the 
former,  they  found  as  much  pretext  as  the  fiercest 
enemies  of  monachism  could  have  desired.  Wic- 
iiffe  had  lamented  one  crying  evil,  which  has 
prevailed  everywhere  where  monasteries  have 
existed  .  .  .  the  practice  of  thrusting  children  into 
them,  and  compelling  them  to  bind  themselves 
by  irrevocable  vows,  that  the  patrimony  of  the 
elder  or  favourite  child  might  not  be  diminished 
by  their  portion.  The  visitors  had  authority  to 
dispense  with  such  vows;  and  many,  when  they 
knew  this,  fell  on  their  knees  before  them,  and 
prayed  to  be  delivered  from  their  miserable  im- 
prisonment. In  many  of  these  petty  communi- 
ties, they  found  parties  opposed  to  each  other, 
captious  opposition,  vexatious  tyranny,  and  cruel 


56  THE  MONASTERIES.  [chap. 

abuse  of  power,  which  dreaded  no  responsibility. 
Coining  was  detected  in  some  houses  ;  the  black- 
est and  foulest  crimes  in  others.  Many  nunneries 
were  in  a  scandalous  state  ;  and  so  little  were  the 
austere  rules  of  their  institute  observed,  that  when 
the  observance  was  insisted  on  by  the  visitors, 
the  Monks  declared  it  was  intolerable,  and  desired 
rather  that  their  community  might  be  suppressed 
than  so  reformed. 

It  was  in  the  lesser  monasteries  that  the  worst 
abuses  were  found  ;  probably  because  they  served 
as  places  of  degradation,  to  which  the  most  re- 
fractory or  vicious  members  were  sent.  This 
afforded  a  plea  for  suppressing  them,  and  a  Bill 
was  passed  accordingly,  for  conferring  upon  the 
Crown  all  religious  houses,  which  were  not  able 
clearly  to  expend  above  200/.  a  year.  The  Pre- 
amble stated,  that  when  the  congregation  of 
Monks,  Canons,  or  Nuns,  was  under  the  number 
of  twelve  persons,  carnal  and  abominable  living 
was  commonly  used,  to  the  waste  of  the  property, 
the  slander  of  religion,  and  the  great  infamy  of 
the  King  and  of  the  realm,  if  redress  should  not 
be  had  thereof.  Their  manner  of  life  had,  by 
cursed  custom,  become  so  inveterate,  that  no  refor- 
mation was  possible,  except  by  utterly  suppressing 
such  houses,  and  distributing  the  members  among 
the  great  monasteries,  wherein  religion  was  right 
well  understood,  but  which  were  destitute  of  such 
full  members  as  they  ought  to  keep.    In  order, 


THE  MONASTERIES. 


51 


therefore,  that  the  possessions  of  such  small  reli- 
gious houses,  instead  of  being  spent,  spoiled,  and 
wasted  for  increase  of  sin,  should  be  converted  to 
better  uses,  and  the  unthrifty  religious  persons,  so 
spending  the  same,  be  compelled  to  reform  their 
lives,  Parliament  humbly  desired  the  King  would 
take  all  such  monasteries  to  himself  and  his  heirs 
for  ever. 

If  the  plea  for  this  act  had  not  been  undenia- 
bly notorious,  the  greater  Abbots,  of  whom  six- 
and-twenty  at  that  time  voted  in  Parliament, 
would  never  have  consented  to  it.  Fair  promises 
were  held  out,  that  all  should  be  done  to  the 
pleasure  of  Almighty  God,  and  for  the  honour  of 
the  realm  ;  and  equitable  provisions  were  made 
(had  they  been  observed)  for  the  reservation  of 
rents,  services,  corodies,  and  pensions,  the  conti- 
nual keeping  up  of  house  and  household  in  the 
same  precinct,  by  those  to  whom  abbey  lands 
should  be  past,  and  for  occupying  the  same  ex- 
tent of  the  demesne  in  tillage,  the  latter  under  a 
monthly  penalty  of  ten  marks.  By  this  Act  375 
convents  were  dissolved ;  in  the  diocese  of  Bangor 
not  one  was  left  standing.  The  King  became 
possessed  of  about  10,000/.  in  plate  and  move- 
ables, and  a  clear  yearly  revenue  of  30,000/. 
Some  10,000  persons  were  cast  upon  the  world  ; 
the  greater  monasteries  had  no  inclination  to  re- 
ceive them,  and  it  was  at  their  choice  to  enter 
or  not.    The  King  cared  not  what  became  of 


58  DEATH  OF  Q.  CATHARINE.  [chap. 


them  after  he  had  given  them  a  new  gown  and 
forty  shillings ;  many  rejoiced  in  their  liberty, 
and  some,  it  is  to  be  hoped,  deserved  it  and  en- 
joyed it ;  but  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  num- 
ber of  vagabonds  was  increased  by  this  eject- 
ment, and  that  some  gray  hairs  must  have  gone 
down  in  misery  to  the  grave.  The  property  was 
soon  dispersed  by  grant,  sale,  and  exchange.  This 
is  said  to  have  been  Cromwell's  advice  ;  and  it 
is  a  policy  which  has  been  followed  in  all  revolu- 
tions. 

Even  before  the  Act  had  passed,  some  of  the 
smaller  houses  were  voluntarily  surrendered  to 
the  King.  The  motive  may  have  been  a  con- 
sciousness of  crimes,  which  stood  in  need  of 
pardon  :  an  expectation  of  favour  ;  or,  what  is 
not  less  probable,  the  prevalence  of  the  reformed 
opinions  among  the  members ;  for  the  convents 
produced  many  advocates  for  the  Reformation, 
and  some  of  its  martyrs.  Queen  Catharine  did 
not  live  to  Avitness  these  proceedings,  which 
would  have  grieved  her  more  than  her  own  inju- 
ries. She  never  laid  down  her  royal  title  ;  but 
maintained  that  her  marriage  was  valid,  and, 
therefore,  indissoluble  ;  so  in  conscience  she  be- 
lieved it  to  be,  and  persisted  in  asserting  it,  for 
her  daughter's  sake.  It  is  remarkable  that  her 
affection  for  Henry  continued  to  the  last ;  she 
called  him,  in  her  last  letter,  her  dear  lord  and 


XII.] 


HENRY  VIII. 


59 


husband,  forgave  him  all  the  unhappiness  he  had 
brought  upon  her,  expressed  a  tender  anxiety 
for  his  soul,  and  concluded  by  declaring,  that 
her  eves  desired  him  above  all  things.  Shame 
may  have  prevented  Henry  from  gratifying  this 
desire  ;  of  any  better  feeling  he  had  now  become 
incapable.  The  thorough  hardness  of  his  heart 
was  shown  soon  afterwards,  Avhen  he  declared 
his  marriage  with  Anne  Boleyn  void,  beheaded 
her  upon  a  false  and  monstrous  charge  of  adul- 
tery and  incest,  and  married  Jane  Seymour  the 
next  day.  This  change  produced  no  alteration 
in  religious  affairs,  for  the  new  Queen  was  of  a 
family  which  favoured  the  Reformation,  and 
shared  largely  in  the  plunder  distributed  under 
that  name. 

The  Lower  House  of  Convocation,  in  which 
the  Romish  party  prevailed,  presented  a  protes- 
tation at  this  time,  against  certain  errors  and 
abuses,  as  worthy  of  special  reformation.  The 
opinions  of  which  they  complained,  sixty-seven 
in  number,  were  chiefly  what  arc  at  this  day  the 
tenets  of  the  Protestant  Church,  blended  with 
which  were  what  Fuller  has  Avell  called  "  rather 
expressions  than  opinions,  and  those  probably 
worse  spoken  than  meant,  worse  taken  than 
spoken."  In  the  Upper  House,  parties  were 
equally  divided  ;  there  were,  on  both  sides,  men 
of  great  learning,  ability,  and  address ;  and  the 


60 


ARTICLES  OF  FAITH. 


[chap. 


advantage  which  the  Protestant  Bishops  possess- 
ed in  their  cause,  was  balanced  by  popular  opi- 
nion on  the  side  of  their  antagonists, . . .  for  the  evils 
which  Sir  Thomas  More  had  foreseen,  were  be- 
ginning to  be  felt.  After  long  consultation  and 
debate,  certain  articles  were  at  length  set  forth 
in  the  King's  name,  as  Head  of  the  Church  of 
England  5  it  being,  the  preamble  stated,  '  among 
the  chief  cures  appertaining  to  his  princely  office, 
diligently  to  provide  that  unity  and  concord  in 
religious  opinions  should  increase  and  go  forth- 
ward,  and  all  occasion  of  dissent  and  discord, 
touching  the  same,  be  repressed  and  utterly  ex- 
tinguished." The  articles  were  such  as  could 
satisfy  neither  party ;  both  having  struggled  to 
introduce  their  own  opinions,  and  each  with  con- 
siderable success,  though,  on  the  whole,  to  the 
manifest  advantage  of  the  Reformers.  The  Bible 
and  the  three  Creeds  were  made  the  standards  of 
faith ;  no  mention  being  made  of  tradition,  nor 
of  the  decrees  of  the  Church.  Three  Sacra- 
ments,...  those  of  Baptism,  Penance,  and  the 
Altar,  were  said  to  be  necessary  to  salvation, . . . 
four  being  thus  pretermitted :  but  the  corporal 
presence  was  declared,  and  the  necessity  of  au- 
ricular confession.  Images  were  allowed  as  use- 
ful, but  they  were  not  to  be  worshipped ;  and 
Saints  might  laudably  be  addressed  as  interces- 
sors, though  it  was  asserted  that  Christ  is  our 


m]       DISCONTENT  OF  THE  ROMANISTS. 


only  sufficient  mediator.  The  existing  rites  and 
ceremonies  were  to  be  retained,  as  good  and 
laudable ;  not  as  having  power  to  remit  sin,  but 
as  useful  in  stirring  and  lifting  up  our  minds  unto 
God,  by  whom  only  our  sins  can  be  forgiven. 
Lastly,  prayers  for  the  dead  were  advised  as 
good  and  charitable;  though  the  question  of  Pur- 
gatory was  said  to  be  uncertain  by  Scripture,  and 
the  abuses  which,  under  that  belief,  had  arisen 
were  to  be  put  away. 

At  the  same  time,  a  number  of  holydays  were 
abolished,  more  especially  such  as,  falling  in 
harvest,  were  deemed  injurious.  The  discon- 
tent, which  these  measures  occasioned  among 
those  who  were  thoroughly  attached  to  the  faith 
of  their  forefathers,  with  all  its  corruptions,  was 
fomented  by  certain  of  the  Clergy,  and  by  those 
men  who  are  ready  for  any  desperate  undertaking. 
They  represented,  that  four  Sacraments  were  now 
taken  away,  and  the  remaining  three  would  not 
long  be  left ;  that  all  God's  service  was  in  danger 
of  being  destroyed;  and  that,  unless  the  King's 
evil  counsellors,  who  had  suppressed  the  re- 
ligious houses,  were  put  down,  no  man  would  be 
allowed  to  marry,  or  partake  the  Sacraments,  or 
eat  meat,  without  first  paying  money  to  the  King ; 
so  that  they  would  be  brought  under  a  worse 
bondage,  and  into  a  wickeder  way  of  life,  than 
the  subjects  of  the  very  Turk.    The  Lincolnshire 


62 


HENRY  VIII. 


[chap. 


men  rose  in  arms  upon  this  quarrel;  and  their 
insurrection  assumed  so  serious  an  aspect,  that 
Henry  mustered  an  army,  and  hastened  in  person 
against  them.  His  approach  dismayed  the  lead- 
ers; and  the  ignorant  multitude,  being  deserted 
by  those  who  had  set  them  on,  sent  their  com- 
plaints to  the  King,  in  the  form  of  a  petition,  pro- 
testing withal  that  they  never  intended  hurt  to- 
ward his  royal  person.  He  returned  an  answer, 
in  which  he  reasoned  with  them,  at  the  same  time 
that  he  asserted  his  authority,  and  sternly  re- 
proved their  treason.  He  had  never  read  or  heard, 
he  told  them,  that  rude  and  ignorant  common 
people  were  meet  persons  to  discern  and  choose 
sufficient  counsellors  for  a  Prince  ;  how  presump- 
tuous then  were  they,  the  rude  commons  of  one 
shire,  and  that  one  of  the  most  brute  and  beastly 
of  the  whole  realm,  thus  to  take  upon  them  to 
rule  their  King!  The  religious  houses  had  not 
been  suppressed  by  the  act  of  evil  counsellors, 
as  they  full  falsely  asserted ;  but  granted  to  him 
by  all  the  Nobles,  spiritual  and  temporal,  of  the 
realm,  and  by  all  the  Commons  in  the  same,  by 
Act  of  Parliament.  No  houses  had  been  sup- 
pressed wherein  God  was  well  served ;  but  those 
in  which  most  vice,  mischief,  and  abomination  of 
living  were  used,  appearing  by  their  own  confes- 
sion, subscribed  with  their  own  hands,  at  the 
time  of  their  visitation :  and  more  than  the  Act 


xn.] 


PILGRIMAGE  OF  GRACE. 


63 


needed  had  been  suffered  to  stand,  for  which,  if 
they  amended  not,  there  would  be  more  to  an- 
swer for  than  for  the  dissolution  of  the  rest.  Re- 
minding them  then  of  his  authority  and  their  duty, 
he  required  them  to  deliver  up  an  hundred  of  their 
ringleaders  to  his  justice,  rather  than  adventure 
their  own  utter  destruction.  Terrified  by  this  de- 
mand, every  man  endeavoured  to  shift  for  himself* 
and  such  of  the  leaders  as  could  be  apprehended 
were  put  to  death. 

The  discontents  assumed  a  more  formidable 
aspect  in  the  North.  An  hundred  thousand  men 
collected  in  Yorkshire;  they  bore  a  crucifix  on 
one  side  of  their  banner,  and  a  chalice  and  wafer 
on  the  other:  the  men  wore,  as  a  cognizance, 
on  their  sleeves,  the  representation  of  the  five 
wounds,  with  the  name  of  our  Lord  ;  and  they 
called  their  march  the  holy  and  blessed  Pilgrim- 
age of  Grace.  Priests,  bearing  crosses,  went  be- 
fore them;  and  every  where  they  replaced  the 
Monks  and  Nuns  in  the  suppressed  Monasteries. 
Men  of  family  and  influence  were  engaged  in  this 
rebellion,  and  some  of  the  great  Abbots  were  af- 
terwards attainted  for  secretly  supplying  them 
with  money.  Pomfret  Castle  was  yielded  to  them 
by  the  Archbishop  of  York  and  Lord  Darcy: 
both  were  suspected  of  promoting  the  rebellion; 
and  both,  at  this  time,  being  either  really  or  ap- 
parently compelled,  swore  to  the  covenant  of  the 


64 


PILGRIMAGE  OF  GRACE. 


[CHAF. 


insurgents.  York  and  Hull  were  surrendered  to 
them :  Scarborough  Castle  was  bravely  defended 
by  Sir  Ralph  Evers  ;  and  Skipton  by  the  Earl  of 
Cumberland,  though  many  of  the  gentry,  whom 
he  entertained  at  his  own  cost,  deserted  him. 
Encouraged  by  the  rising  in  Yorkshire,  the  peo- 
ple rose  also  in  Lancashire,  Westmoreland,  and 
the  Bishopric  of  Durham.  The  rebellion  became 
serious :  the  army  from  Lincolnshire  could  not  be 
removed,  lest  the  people  there  should  assemble 
and  march  upon  their  rear,  while  the  Yorkshire 
men  met  them  in  front.  The  Earl  of  Shrewsbury 
made  head  against  the  insurgents  with  what  force 
he  could  collect ;  not  waiting  for  orders  or  au- 
thority, when  his  duty  was  so  plain  :  for  which 
the  King  properly  appointed  him  to  the  command 
in  chief,  and  sent  him  succour  with  all  speed, 
under  the  Earls  of  Derby,  Huntingdon,  and  Rut- 
land, the  Marquis  of  Exeter,  and,  lastly,  the  Duke 
of  Norfolk. 

The  leader  of  the  insurgents  was  one  Robert 
Aske,  a  gentleman  of  mean  estate,  but  of  such 
talents,  that  no  enterprise  of  this  nature  seems 
ever  to  have  been  conducted  with  greater  ability 
in  any  respect.  One  of  the  leaders  under  him 
assumed  the  title  of  Earl  of  Poverty.  Their  num- 
bers and  their  order  were  such,  that  the  King's 
Generals  deemed  it  dangerous  to  attack  them, 
lest,  upon  the  slightest,  advantage  which  might 


XII.] 


PILGRIMAGE  OF  GRACE. 


be  gained  over  the  royal  army,  a  general  rebellion 
should  break  out.  Norfolk  advised  that  condi- 
tions should  be  offered :  he  was  suspected  of 
seeking  to  serve  the  Romish  cause  by  this  means; 
and  there  is  strong  ground  for  believing  this: 
nevertheless,  his  advice  was  good  ;  for  the  chance 
of  battle  would  have  been  greatly  in  favour  of  the 
insurgents,  whereas  they  were  not  so  capable  of 
keeping  together,  for  want  of  regular  supplies, 
as  the  King's  troops ;  and,  at  all  events,  it  was 
better  to  proceed  by  conciliation  than  by  force. 
A  herald  was  sent  to  summon  them  to  lay  down 
their  arms.  Aske  received  him,  sitting  in  state, 
with  the  Archbishop  on  one  side,  and  Lord  Darcy 
on  the  other,  and  having  inquired  what  he  was 
charged  to  proclaim,  would  not  allow  him  to 
publish  it.  Upon  this,  the  King  summoned  all 
the  Nobles  to  meet  him  at  Northampton,  and  the 
army  advanced  to  Doncaster,  to  prevent  the  re- 
bels from  proceeding  farther  to  the  south;  they 
were  now  thirty  thousand  in  number,  the  king's 
force  only  six  thousand,  . . .  and,  in  point  of  arms 
and  discipline,  there  was  little  difference.  The 
latter,  however  had  fortified  the  bridges ;  and 
the  insurgents  could  not  ford  the  Don,  which  was 
so  seasonably  rendered  impassable  by  heavy 
rains,  that  the  circumstance  was  represented  as 
a  direct  interference  of  Providence.  Time  was 
thus  gained  for  nogotiaf ion  :  and  the  knowledge 
voi.  11.  .r) 


\ 


06  PILGRIMAGE  OF  GRACE.  [chap. 

that. a  negotiation  was  going  on,  introduced  a  fear 
among  the  insurgents,  that  their  leaders  would 
make  terms  for  themselves,  and  leave  them  to  shift 
as  the j  could. 

The  articles  which  the  insurgents  demanded, 
were  drawn  up  by  the  Clergy  among  them:  they 
required  a  general  pardon,  the  establishment  of 
Courts  of  Justice  at  York,  to  the  end  that  no 
person  north  of  Trent  should  be  brought  to  Lon- 
don upon  any  law-suit, ...  the  repeal  of  certain 
acts,  the  restoration  of  the  Papal  authority,  of 
the  Princess  Mary  to  her  right  of  succession,  and 
of    the    suppressed  Convents ;    the  removal  of 
Cromwell  and  of  the  Chancellor,  the  punishment 
of  the  Lutherans,  and  also  of  two  of  the  visitors 
for  bribery  and  extortion.    These  demands  being 
rejected,  they  prepared  to  enforce  them  by  ad- 
vancing, and  Norfolk  represented  to  the  King 
that  some  concession  ought  to  be  made,  for  they 
were  greatly  superior  to  him  in  strength.  He 
was  authorized,  therefore,  to  offer  a  general  par- 
don, and  promise  that  a  Parliament  should  soon 
be  called,  in  which  their  demands  should  be  con- 
sidered.   A  second  rising  of  the  river  Don,  which 
again  prevented  them  from  crossing  it,  intimi 
dated  them,  as  an  interposition  of  Providence  on 
the  King's  behalf;   they  gladly  accepted  these 
terms,  and  the  pardon  was  signed,  on  condition 
that  they  submitted  and  returned  to  their  obedi- 


XII.] 


PILGRIMAGE  OF  GRACE. 


67 


ence.  A  proclamation  accompanied  the  pardon, 
in  which  the  King  justified  the  measures  of  his 
government,  and  expressed  his  wonder  that  they, 
who  were  but  brutes,  should  think  they  could  bet- 
ter judge  than  himself  and  his  whole  Council,  who 
should  be  his  counsellors.  Just  complaints  he  was 
ready  to  hear  and  satisfy ;  but  he  would  bear 
with  no  such  interference.  And  he  required 
them  to  revoke  the  oaths  by  which  they  had 
bound  themselves  to  this  rebellion,  to  swear  obe- 
dience, to  apprehend  seditious  persons,  and  re- 
move the  Monks,  Nuns,  and  Friars,  whom  they 
had  re-established.  He  ordered  them  also  to 
send  Aske  and  Lord  Darcy  to  court.  The  latter 
was  imprisoned;  his  case,  indeed,  was  different 
from  that  of  the  insurgents.  Aske  was  favour- 
ably received ;  but  when  an  attempt  was  made 
to  surprise  Carlisle,  and  several  partial  insurrec- 
tions broke  out,  he  hastened  again  to  bear  part  in 
what  he  deemed  a  religious  cause ;  and  being 
made  prisoner,"  was  put  to  death.  Lord  Darcy 
was  brought  to  trial,  and,  in  his  defence,  accused 
Norfolk  of  having  encouraged  the  rebels  to  per- 
sist in  their  demands.  The  Duke  offered  to  prove 
his  innocence  by  combat;  but^  Henry  gave  no 
ear  to  the  accusation,  and  Darcy,  whose  former 
services  were  thought  to  deserve  consideration, 
and  whose  great  age  excited  compassion,  was 
beheaded.  Many  suffered  by  martial  law ;  and 
5 


DISSOLUTION  OF 


[chap. 


some  of  the  great  Abbots  were  attainted  and  ex- 
ecuted for  the  part  thej  had  taken  in  abetting  the 
insurrection. 

This  unsuccessful  struggle  hastened  the  disso- 
lution of  those  Monasteries  which  had  hitherto 
been  spared.  It  was  pretended  that,  by  this 
measure,  the  King  and  his  successors  would  be  so 
greatly  enriched,  that  the  people  would  never 
again  be  charged  with  taxes;  and  that  the  reve- 
nue thus  obtained,  would  suffice  for  supporting 
forty  Earls,  sixty  Barons,  three  thousand  knights, 
and  forty  thousand  soldiers,  with  their  captains; 
for  making  better  provision  for  the  poor,  and 
giving  salaries  to  ministers  who  should  go  about 
and  preach  the  Gospel.  The  manner  in  which 
many  Convents  were  surrendered,  shows  how 
weary  the  members  were  of  their  way  of  life  : 
some  gave  as  a  reason,  their  conviction  that  the 
ceremonies  to  which  they  were  bound  were  su- 
perstitious and  useless;  others  confessed  shame 
and  repentance  for  the  frauds  which  they  had 
practised,  and  the  vices  in  which  they  had  indulg- 
ed. But  there  were  some  cases  in  which  the 
neighbourhood  petitioned  that  a  religious  house 
might  not  be  suppressed,  and  the  visitors  them- 
selves represented  it  as  a  blessing  to  the  country. 
Latimer,  with  his  honest  earnestness,  entreated 
that  two  or  three  in  every  shire  might  be  continu- 
ed, not  in  Monkery,  he  said,  but  as  establishments 


THE  MONASTERIES. 


69 


for  learned  men,  and  such  as  would  go  about 
preaching  and  giving  religious  instruction  to  the 
people,  and  for  the  sake  of  hospitality.  The 
University  of  Cambridge  expressed  their  desire 
and  hope  that  the  monasteries,  which  had  hither- 
to been,  not  merely  unprofitable  to  religion,  but 
even  pernicious,  might  be  converted  into  Colleges 
for  students  and  preachers. 

The  King's  purpose  was,  to  appropriate  13,000/. 
a  year,  in  Church  lands,  for  the  endowment  of 
eighteen  new  Bishoprics.  The  proportion  would 
have  been  iniquitously  small;  for  the  yearly  re- 
venues of  which  he  thus  became  possessed,  ex. 
ceeded  130,000/.,.... but  a  third  part  only  of  what 
he  purposed  was  performed.  The  rest  of  the 
property  was  squandered  by  prodigal  grants 
among  his  rapacious  favourites ;  by  such  sales  or 
exchanges  as  were  little  less  advantageous  than 
grants  to  the  favoured  subject ;  and  no  trifling 
part  the  King  gambled  away,. .  .setting,  some- 
times an  estate,  and  sometimes  a  peal  of  Church 
bells  upon  a  cast.  The  deeds  by  which  lands 
were  conveyed  to  a  religious  house,  usually  con- 
cluded with  the  solemn  imprecation  of  a  curse 
upon  those  persons  who  should  either  withhold 
or  wrest  them  from  the  pious  uses  to  which  they 
were  consecrated ;  that  curse,  the  Abbey-lands  J 
were  believed,  and  not  by  the  Romanists  alone, 
to  carry  with  them;  and  it  fell  heavily  upon  many 


70 


RELIC*. 


[chap. 


of  those  who  partook  most  largely  in  the  spoil. 
The  feeling  of  the  people,  upon  this  subject,  was 
a  just  and  natural  one.  The  first  religious  house 
which  was  demolished  was  that  of  Christ  Church 
in  London,  which  had  been  given  to  the  Chancel- 
lor Sir  Thomas  Audley;  and  when  he  offered  the 
materials  of  the  priory,  church,  and  steeple,  to 
any  who  would  take  them  down,  no  man  would 
accept  the  offer  :....a  fact  most  honourable  to  the 
Londoners. 

This  proper  feeling  soon  yielded  to  cupidity, 
aided  as  that  was  by  indignation  at  the  enormi- 
ties which  the  visitors  brought  to  light,  and  the 
juggling  tricks  which  were  now  exposed.  The 
simplest  persons  perceived  what  frauds  had  been 
practised  concerning  relics,  when  more  pieces  of 
the  true  Cross  were  produced  than  would  have 
made  a  whole  one  ;  and  so  many  teeth  of  Saint 
Apollonia,  which  were  distributed  as  amulets 
against  tooth-ache,  that  they  filled  a  tun.  The 
abominable  frauds  of  the  Romish  Church  hasten- 
ed its  downfall  now,  more  than  they  had  pro- 
moted its  rise.  A  ivial  was  shown  at  Hales  in 
Gloucestershire,  as  containing  a  portion  of  our 
blessed  Saviour's  blood,  which  suffered  itself  to 
be  seen  by  no  person  in  a  state  of  mortal  sin,  but 
became  visible  when  the  penitent,  by  his  offer- 
ings, had  obtained  forgiveness.  It  was  now  dis- 
covered,   that  this    was    performed  by  keeping 


XII.] 


FALSE  MIRACLES. 


71 


blood,  which  was  renewed  every  week,  in  a  vial, 
one  side  of  which  was  thick  and  opaque,  the 
other  transparent,  and  turning  it  by  a  secret  hand, 
as  the  case  required.  A  trick  of  the  same  kind, 
more  skilfully  executed,  is  still  annually  per- 
formed at  Naples.  There  was  a  Crucifix  at  Box- 
ley,  called  the  Rood  of  Grace,  which  was  a  fa- 
vourite object  of  pilgrimage,  because  the  image 
moved  its  head,  hands,  and  feet,  rolled  its  eyes, 
and  made  many  other  gestures,  which  were  re- 
presented as  miraculous,  and  believed  to  be  so. 
The  mechanism  whereby  all  this  was  done  was 
now  exposed  to  the  public,  and  the  Bishop  of 
Rochester,  after  pieaching  a  sermon  upon  the 
occasion,  broke  the  rood  to  pieces  in  their  sight. 
Henry  failed  not  to  take  advantage  of  the  temper 
which  such  disclosures  excited.  Shrines  and 
treasures,  which  it  might  otherwise  have  been 
dangerous  to  have  invaded,  were  now  thought 
rightfully  to  be  seized,  when  they  had  been  pro- 
cured by  such  gross  and  palpable  impositions. 
The  gold  from  Becket's  shrine  alone  filled  two 
chests,  which  were  a  load  for  eight  strong  men. 
Becket  was  unsainted,  as  well  as  unshrined,  by 
the  King,  who,  taking  up  the  cause  his  ances- 
tor, ordered  his  name  to  be  struck  out  from  the 
Kalendar,  and  his  bones  burnt.  Another  fraud 
was  then  discovered,...for  the  skull  was  found 
with  the  rest  of  the  skeleton  in  his  grave,  though 


72  BULL  OF  DEPOSITION.  (our. 

another  had  been  produced,  to  work  miracles,  as 
his,  in  the  Church. 

The  Pope  had  long  threatened  to  issue  a  Bull 
of  Deposition,  but  had  hitherto  delayed  it,  be- 
cause of  the  displeasure  which  he  knew  it  would 
occasion  in  other  Sovereign  Princes.  The  man- 
ner in  which  Becket  had  been  uncanonized  put 
an  end  to  this  suspension,  and  the  Bull  was  now 
fulminated,  requiring  the  King  and  his  accom- 
plices to  appear  at  Rome,  and  there  give  an  ac- 
count of  their  actions,  on  pain  of  excommunica- 
tion and  rebellion  ;  otherwise,  the  Pope  deprived 
him  of  his  Crown,  and  them  of  their  estates,  and 
both  of  Christian  burial.  He  interdicted  the  king- 
dom; absolved  his  subjects  and  their  vassals  from 
all  oaths  and  obligations  to  them  ;  declared  him 
infamous ;  called  upon  all  Nobles  and  others  in 
his  dominions  to  take  arms  against  him  ;  and  re- 
quired all  Kings,  Princes,  and  military  persons, 
in  virtue  of  the  obedience  which  they  owed  the 
Apostolic  See,  to  make  war  against  him,  and 
make  slaves  of  such  of  his  subjects  as  they  could 
seize.  In  his  letters  to  the  different  Potentates, 
Avhich  accompanied  the  Bull,  he  called  Henry  a 
heretic,  a  schismatic,  a  manifest  adulterer,  and 
public  murderer;  a  rebel  convicted  of  high  trea- 
son against  his  Lord  the  Pope,... and  he  offered 
his  dominions  to  the  King  of  Scotland,  if  he  would 
go  and  take  them. 


w3 


GARDINER. 


3F3 


But  the  throne  of  England  was  no  longer  to 
be  shaken  by  such  thunders.  Even  the  Romish 
Bishops  joined  in  the  declaration  which  Henry 
set  forth,  that  Christ  had  forbidden  his  Apostles 
or  their  successors  to  take  to  themselves  the 
power  of  the  sword,  or  the  authority  of  kings ; 
and  that  if  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  or  any  other 
bishop,  assumed  any  such  power,  he  was  a  tyrant 
and  usurper  of  other  men's  rights,  and  a  sub- 
verter  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  The  prelates, 
who  were  most  devoted  to  the  Papal  cause, 
deemed  it  politic  for  that  cause,  rather  to  assent 
to  the  King's  measures,  than  to  oppose  him;  nor 
was  there  any  one  at  this  time  who  defended  all 
his  proceedings,  even  those  which  were  least  de- 
fensible, more  obsequiously  than  Gardiner,  who 
of  all  men  was  at  heart  most  inimical  to  the  Re- 
formation. This  man,  of  odious  memory,  is  sup- 
posed to  have  been  the  natural  son  of  a  Bishop 
of  Salisbury,  who  was  brother  to  Edward  the 
Fourth's  Queen;  by  the  half-blood  he  was,  there- 
fore, cousin  to  Henry's  mother.  His  counte- 
nance indicated  capacity  of  mind,  and  strength  of 
character,  but  it  was  strongly  marked  also  by 
craft  and  implacable  severity ;... deep  dissembler 
as  he  was,  nature  had  made  his  features  incapable 
of  dissimulation.  The  son  and  biographer  of  good 
John  Fox  has  well  described  him  as  "a  man 
whose  abilities  qualified  him  for  any  employment. 


74 


DEATH  OF  QUEEN  JANE. 


[chap. 


but  who  alway,  as  he  grew  elder,  grew  worse  : 
haughty  and  cruel  in  bearing  those  honours 
which  his  deserts  had  won,  and  in  regaining  any 
that  he  had  lost,  able  to  weary  any  man  with  sub- 
mission and  humility." 

Gardiner  understood  the  King's  temper,  and 
knew  when  it  was  necessary  to  yield  to  him,  and 
by  what  means,  at  other  seasons,  he  might  be 
guided.  The  Reformation  had  been  advancing 
rapidly.  The  translation  of  the  Bible,  which 
Tindal  began,  had  been  completed  by  Miles 
Coverdale ;  and  the  whole  work  having  been 
printed  on  the  Continent,  at  the  cost  of  Richard 
Grafton  and  his  friends,  was  licensed  in  England 
under  the  privy  seal,  and  ordered  to  be  provided 
in  all  parish  churches,  for  the  use  of  the  parish- 
ioners, the  price  of  the  book  to  be  borne  half  by 
them,  and  half  by  the  incumbent.  Another  cir- 
cumstance, not  less  favourable  to  the  Reformers, 
was  the  birth  of  Prince  Edward  ;  their  work  they 
well  knew  would  be  undone  if  Mary  should  suc- 
ceed to  the  throne.  The  birth  of  a  son,  there- 
fore, who  would  be  trained  up  in  their  principles, 
was  of  the  utmost  importance,  though  their  joy 
was  abated  by  the  death  of  Queen  Jane  in  child- 
bed. The  writers  who  supposed  that,  by  black- 
ening the  character  of  Henry,  they  might  injure 
the  Protestant  cause,  represented  her  life  as 
having    been  sacrificed  to  his   desire    of  issue. 


XII.] 


GARDINER. 


75 


affirming  that,  upon  the  alternative  of  losing  wife 
or  child,  he  commanded  that  the  infant  should 
be  saved.  The  atrocious  falsehood  is  disproved 
by  authentic  documents.  While  Henry  continued 
attached  to  a  wife,  his  attachment  was  strong,  and 
he  had  not  lived  long  enough  with  Jane  Seymour 
to  be  weary  of  her.  If,  indeed,  he  ever  felt  a 
real  affection  for  any  of  his  wives,  it  was  for  her; 
and  it  was  considered  as  a  proof  of  his  undissem- 
bled  grief  at  her  loss,  that  he  continued  two  years 
a  widower. 

There  are  some  grounds  for  believing  that 
Gardiner  had,  at  this  time,  reconciled  himself  to 
the  Pope  for  the  part  which  he  had  taken  in  sub- 
servience to  his  master.  Henry  valued  his  abi- 
lities for  business,  saw  his  meanness,  and  was 
not  aware  that  he  himself  was  sometimes  in- 
fluenced by  the  fawning  subtlety  which  he  de- 
spised. The  word  heretic  carried  with  it  an 
odious  sound ;  no  man  was  willing  to  acknow- 
ledge the  fatal  name.  The  King,  particularly, 
still  proud  of  the  title  which  he  had  gained  by 
defending  the  faith,  could  not  bear  to  be  thought 
an  upholder  of  heresy  ;  and  Gardiner  represented 
to  him,  that  nothing  could  remove  that  imputa- 
tion, and  establish  his  reputation  for  orthodoxy 
so  effectuall),  as  to  repress,  by  timely  severity, 
the  opinions  of  the  Sacramentaries  .  .  .  opinions 
which  were  gaining  ground  in  England,  though 


70 


I.AMBEKT. 


[chap. 


none  of  the  reforming  prelates  had  yet  adopted 
them.  An  unhappy  opportunity  was  soon  af- 
forded this  evil  counsellor  for  urging  his  advice 
with  success. 

There  was  a  pupil  of  the  martyr  Bilney,  John 
Lambert  by  name,  wbo,  treading  faithfully  in  the 
steps  of  his  master  and  friend,  found  it  necessary 
to  leave  the  kingdom;  and,  going  to  Antwerp, 
where  he  associated  with  Frith  and  Tindal,  con- 
tinued there  for  some  time  as  chaplain  to  his  coun- 
trymen, till,  at  Sir  T.  More's  instigation,  he  was 
seized  and  brought  to  England,  where  he  was 
required  to  answer,  before  Archbishop  Warham, 
to  five-and-forty  articles,  any  one  of  which  might 
have  placed  him  at  the  mercy  of  his  persecutors. 
The  opportune  death  of  Warham,  and  the  change 
of  measures  which  ensued  upon  the  King's  mar- 
riage with  Anne  Boleyn,  saved  him  then  from 
the  stake ;  and  Lambert,  laying  aside  his  priest- 
hood with  the  intention  of  marrying,  employed 
himself  in  teaching  Greek  and  Latin.  He  held 
the  same  opinions  as  Frith  concerning  transub- 
stantiation,  and  hearing  a  certain  Dr.- Tailor  touch 
upon  that  subject  in  a  sermon,  went  to  him  after 
the  service  in  private,  and  proposed  certain  ques- 
tions as  to  a  person  from  whom  he  differed  con- 
cerning that  point,  but  agreed  with  him  in  all 
others.  Tailor  requested  to  have  his  arguments 
in  writing,  and  Lambert  readily  complied,  sus- 


LAMBERT. 


77 


pccting  no  danger  where  he  had  no  reason  to 
apprehend  any.  Without  any  evil  intention, 
Tailor  showed  the  paper  to  Dr.  Barns,  formerly 
Prior  of  the  Augustines  at  Cambridge,  and,  like 
Lambert  himself,  one  of  Bilney's  converts.  Barns 
was  at  that  time  a  zealous  believer  in  the  corpo- 
ral presence,  for  which  reason,  when  he  was  a 
refugee,  Tindal  had  cautioned  Frith  to  be  cau- 
tious how  he  promulgated  his  opinions  upon  that 
point,  for  fear  of  provoking  him.  The  story  is 
an  awful  lesson  for  the  intolerant.  By  the  advice 
of  Barns,  who  dreaded  the  opprobrium  which 
Frith's  opinions  might  bring  upon  the  Reforma- 
tion, Tailor  laid  the  paper  before  Cranmer,  as 
containing  heresy.  In  consequence,  Lambert  was 
brought  into  court ;  he  appealed  from  the  Bishops 
to  the  King;  and  Henry,  then  under  Gardiner's 
influence,  took  up  the  cause  with  a  high  hand, 
convoking  all  his  nobles  and  prelates,  without 
delay,  to  repair  to  London,  and  assist  him  against 
the  heretics  and  heresies,  upon  which  he  would 
sit  in  judgment.  The  trial,  if  such  it  may  be 
called,  was  held  in  Westminster-hall,  the  King's 
guards  being  that  day  clad  all  in  white,  and  the 
cloth  of  state  white  also.  Henry  was  judge  as 
well  as  disputant ;  and  when  Lambert,  having 
argued,  till  breath  rather  than  reason  failed  him, 
against  Cranmer  and  the  other  prciates,  one  after 
another,  submitted  himself  to  the  King's  mercv, 


78 


HENRY  VIII. 


[CBAP. 


that  King,  into  whose  heart  mercy  never  entered, 
ordered  Cromwell  to  pass  sentence  upon  him  as 
a  heretic  ;  and  he  was  burnt  to  death,  with  cir- 
cumstances of  peculiar  barbarity. 

Cranmer  has  been  hastily  charged  with  acting 
against  his  own  conscience  in  this  horrible  trans- 
action. But  Cranmer,  at  that  time,  believed  the 
corporal  presence,  and  held  also  the  atrocious 
opinion,  that  death  by  fire  was  the  just  and  ap- 
propriate punishment  for  heresy.  This  plainly 
appeared  afterwards,  in  a  case  wherein  he  was 
deeply  criminal.  In  the  present  instance  Gar- 
diner was  the  instigator,  and  Cranmer  was  more 
culpable  for  listening  to  the  first  accusation,  than 
for  bearing  a  part  in  the  subsequent  proceedings, 
over  which  he  had  no  control.  He,  and  the 
Bishops  who  acted  with  him,  had  offended  Henry, 
by  endeavouring  to  save  the  property  of  the 
religious  houses  from  that  utter  waste  to  which 
they  saw  it  destined.  They  were  willing  that  he 
should  resume  whatever  lands  had  been  granted 
to  the  suppressed  convents  by  the  crown;  but 
they  strongly  urged  that  the  residue  should  be 
devoted  to  purposes  of  public  utility,  conformable 
to  the  pious  intention  with  which  it  had  been 
given  to  the  Church.  It  was  Cranmer's  misfor- 
tune, that  some  of  the  Clergy  who  co-operated 
with  him,  were  deficient  either  in  temper  or  dis- 
cretion.   Many  of  the  inferior  preachers  were 


XII.] 


THE  SIX  ARTICLES. 


79 


for  hurrying  forward  to  destroy,  rather  than  to 
reform.  The  Bible  itself  gave  occasion  for  evil ; 
presumptuous  and  ignorant  persons  no  sooner 
read,  than  they  took  upon  themselves  to  expound 
it  :...they  interrupted  the  Church  service  by  thus 
holding  forth ;  discussed  points  of  Scripture  in 
alehouses  and  taverns ;  quarrelled  over  them,  and 
bandied  about  the  reproachful  appellations  of 
papist  and  heretic.  Those  insane  opinions  also 
were  abroad  which  struck  at  the  root  of  all  au- 
thority, civil  or  ecclesiastical,  and  of  all  social 
order.  These  circumstances  accorded  well  with 
Gardiner's  views.  A  proclamation,  which  had 
then  the  force  of  law,  was  issued,  forbidding  all 
unlicensed  persons  to  preach  or  teach  the  Bible, 
and  announcing  the  King's  purpose  to  extinguish 
all  diversities  of  opinion  by  laws,  which,  in  the 
first  draught  of  this  paper,  were  called  terrible ; 
but  Henry  with  his  own  hand  erased  the  word, 
and  substituted  good  and  just. 

The  Six  Articles,  which  shortly  afterwards 
were  enacted,  would  have  justified  the  original 
epithet.  By  these  it  was  declared,  that  no  sub- 
stance of  bread  or  wine  remained  after  consecra- 
tion; that  communion  in  both  kinds  was  not  en- 
joined to  all  persons  ;  that  it  was  not  lawful  for 
priests  to  marry ;  that  vows  of  chastity  must  be 
observed ;  that  private  masses  were  meet  and 
good,  and  auricular  confession  necessary  to  salva- 


UO  THE  SIX  ARTICLES.  [chap. 

tion.  To  speak,  preach,  or  write,  against  any 
of  the  last  five,  was  made  felony  without  benefit 
of  clergy;  but  they  who  offended  against  the  lirst 
were  to  be  burnt  alive,  and  not  even  allowed  to 
save  their  lives  by  abjuration.  This  act  was  no 
sooner  passed,  than  Latimer  and  Shaxton  resigned 
their  bishoprics,  and  were  both  committed  to 
prison.  Cranraer  argued  against  it  in  the  house 
with  great  ability,  and,  by  the  King's  desire, 
delivered  in  his  reasons  in  writing,  Cromwell  tel- 
ling him,  that  let  him  say  or  do  what  he  would, 
the  King  would  alwavs  take  it  well  at  his  hands. 
There  appears,  indeed,  to  have  been  a  sincerity  in 
Henry's  attachment  to  Cranmer,  which  he  never 
felt  for  any  other  of  his  ministers,  perhaps  be- 
cause no  other  ever  so  entirely  deserved  his 
respect.  He  knew  that  the  Archbishop  was  pri- 
vately married  to  Osiander,  the  German  reform- 
er's niece ;  and  on  that  account,  when  he  former- 
ly set  forth  a  proclamation  against  priests'  mar- 
riages, limited  it  to  such  as  should  marry  there- 
after, or  kept  their  wives  openly.  Yielding  now 
to  the  times,  Cranmer  deemed  it  best  to  send  his 
wife  into  her  own  country,  till  circumstances  might 
become  more  propitious;  and  this  he  had  reason 
to  expect,  because  he  knew  that  the  King  was 
in  himself  inclined  to  permit  the  marriage  of  the 
Clergy,  and  had  been  dissuaded  from  it  by  those 
who  represented  it  as  an  unpopular  and  offensive 
measure. 


xu.] 


HENRY  VIII. 


81 


So  many  hundred  persons  were  thrown  into 
prison  upon  the  Six  Articles,  that  Henry  himself 
thought  it  better  to  grant  a  general  pardon,  than 
to  proceed  against  them  all ;  and  this  bloody  act 
slept,  till  his  determination  to  put  away  Anne  of 
Cleves,  and  marry  Catharine  Howard,  drew  on 
the  fall  of  Cromwell,  whom  the  Duke  of  Norfolk, 
uncle  to  the  bride  elect,  mortally  hated.  He  was 
accused  of  heresy  and  treason,  for  acts,  some  of 
which  were  done  in  pursuance  of  the  King's  in- 
struction, and  others  of  such  a  nature,  that  had 
they  been  really  committed,  they  would  have 
been  sufficient  proofs  of  insanity.  And  he  was 
condemned  by  bill  of  attainder,  an  act  for  thus 
depriving  the  innocent  of  all  means  of  defence 
having  recently  been  passed,  with  the  consent  of 
the  judges,  and  with  his  full  assent,  if  not  by  his 
active  interference.  Cromwell  was  the  first  vic- 
tim to  this  most  iniquitous  mode  of  procedure,  and 
Cranmer  was  the  only  man  virtuous  enough  to 
stand  forward  in  his  defence;  he  wrote  to  Henry 
in  the  fallen  minister's  behalf,  telling  him,  that  he 
believed  no  King  of  England  had  ever  so  faithful 
and  so  attached  a  servant,  and  praying  God  to 
send  one  in  his  stead,  who  could  and  would  serve 
him  as  well.  Nothing  could  be  more  dangerous 
than  thus  to  interfere  between  Henry  and  the 
object  of  his  anger it  proved  unavailing;  but 
if  it  excited  a  momentary  displeasure  against 
vol.  n.  6 


V,2 


BONNER. 


[chap. 


Cranmer,  it  confirmed  the  King  in  a  just  opinion  of 
that  Primate's  integrity,  for  he  lived,  it  is  said,  to 
repent  that  he  had  sacrificed  a  faithful  and  able 
minister,  who,  towards  him  at  least,  was  innocent 
of  all  offence. 

The  Six  Articles  were  now  enforced  with  ex- 
treme severity ;  and  Henry,  as  if  to  show  his  im- 
partiality while  he  executed  as  heretics  those  re- 
formers who  went  beyond  the  limits  which  he 
had  laid  down,  put  to  death  as  traitors  those  Ro- 
manists who  refused  to  acknowledge  his  supre- 
macy.   Papists  and  protestants,  coupled  together, 
were  drawn  upon  the  same  hurdle  to  Smithfield, 
the  former  (according  to  their  own  writers)  feel- 
ing it  more  intolerable  than  death,  to  be  thus 
coupled  with  heretics,  and  dying  under  the  hang- 
man's hands   in  this  uncharitable  spirit ;  while 
the  Protestants,  amid  the  flames,  were  offering 
up  prayers  for  those  by  whom  they  were  con- 
demned.    Barns  was  among  those  who  suffer- 
ed at  this  time  ;  he  died  piously,  magnanimous- 
ly, triumphantly ;   and   while  he   thus  expiated 
the  part  which  he  had  himself  borne  in  persecu- 
tion, seems  not  to  have  remembered  it  among  the 
things  for  which  he  asked  and  expected  forgive- 
ness.    Bonner,  whom  Cromwell   and  Cranmer 
had  advanced  to  be  Bishop  of  London,  believing 
him  a  friend  to  the  Reformation,  as  he  had  pre- 
tended to  be,  displayed  his  real  opinions  now. 


XI,.] 


CATHARINE  PARR. 


83 


and  gave  full  scope  to  his  inhuman  disposition. 
He  even  brought  a  poor  ignorant  boy,  scarcely 
fifteen  years  of  age,  to  trial  for  heresy  ;  the  grand 
jury  threw  out  the  bill  ;  Bonner  sent  them  back 
again  with  threats,  and  compelled  them  to  find 
it ;  and  the  boy,  who  would  have  said  or  done  any 
thing  to  obtain  mercy,  was  burnt  alive  by  this 
monster;  who  has  left  behind  him  the  most  exe- 
crable name  in  English  history. 

The  Romanists  had  at  this  time  great  influence 
with  the  King, ...  not  as  Papists,  (for  they  dared 
not  avow  themselves  such,  and  Bonner's  oath  of 
fidelity  to  the  King,  against  the  Pope,  is  still  ex- 
tant, with  his  signature,)  but  as  believers  in  tran- 
substantiation.  Even  the  discovery  of  Katherine 
Howard's  loose  life,  and  her  consequent  execu- 
tion, did  not  weaken  their  party,  as  they  had 
feared  it  would.  After  that  event,  the  general  per- 
mission of  reading  the  Scriptures  was  revoked. 
Nobles  or  gentlemen  might  cause  the  bible  to  be 
read  to  them,  in  or  about  their  own  houses, 
quietly.  Every  merchant,  who  was  a  house- 
holder, might  read  it;  so  also  might  noble  and 
gentle-women,  but  no  persons  under  those  de- 
grees. ' 

The  King's  marriage  with  Katherine  Parr, 
widow  of  Lord  Latimer,  did  not  stop  the  perse- 
cution. But  it  was  known  that  she  favoured  the 
Reformation,  and  Gardiner  therefore  regarded  her 

6 


84 


ANNE  ASKEW. 


as  a  person  who  was,  if  possible,  to  be  removed. 
The  common  saying  was,  that  he  had  bent  his 
bow  to  shoot  at  some  of  the  head  deer, . . .  mean- 
ing the  Queen  and  Cranmer.  Henry  was  now 
more  easy  to  be  worked  on  to  such  wicked  pur- 
poses; the  indulgence  of  cruelty  and  tyranny 
rendering  him  more  cruel  and  tyrannical  as  he 
grew  older.  But  as  it  would  have  been  danger- 
ous to  begin  abruptly  with  these  personages,  an 
attempt  was  made  to  involve  the  Queen  in  a 
charge  of  heresy  upon  the  fatal  point  of  the  cor- 
poral presence ;  and,  upon  that  charge,  Anne 
AskeW,  a  lady  who  was  admired  at  Court  for  her 
acquirements  and  talents  and  beauty,  and  who 
was  greatly  in  the  Queen's  favour,  was  selected 
as  a  victim,  in  the  hope  that  she  might  also  be 
made  an  accuser. 

The  father  of  this  lady,  Sir  William  Askew,  of 
Kelsay  in  Lincolnshire,  had  contracted  his  eldest 
daughter  to  a  rich  heir,  Kyme  by  name,  in  the 
same  county.  She  died  before  the  marriage  was 
completed,  and  Sir  William,  unwilling  to  let  slip 
an  alliance  which  he  deemed  highly  advantage- 
ous, compelled  her  sister  Anne  to  marry  him, 
strongly  against  her  will.  Some  few  yeare  after- 
wards, her  husband  turned  her  out  of  doors,  be- 
cause, by  diligent  perusal  of  the  Scriptures,  she 
had  become  a  Protestant :  upon  which,  she  sought 
for  a  divorce,  would  on  no  conditions  return  to 


xu.]  ANNE  ASKEW.  85 

him  again,  and  resumed  her  maiden  name.  A 
Papist,  who  laid  in  wait  for  her  life,  and  watched 
her  for  that  purpose,  when  he  bore  testimony 
against  her,  deposed  that  she  was  the  devoutest 
woman  he  had  ever  known  ;  for  she  began  to 
pray  always  at  midnight,  and  continued  for  some 
hours  in  that  exercise.  As  long  as  it  was  possi- 
ble, she  evaded,  with  a  woman's  wit,  the  insnar- 
ing  questions  which  were  proposed  to  her.  One 
charge  was,  how  she  had  said  it  was  written  in 
the  scriptures  that  God  was  not  in  temples  made 
with  hands :  upon  this  she  referred  to  the  words 
of  St.  Stephen  and  St.  Paul  ;  and  being  asked, 
how  she  explained  these  words,  replied,  with 
some  scorn,  that  she  would  not  throw  pearls 
before  swine, . . .  acorns  were  good  enough.  The 
Lord  Mayor,  Sir  Martin  Bower,  demanded  of 
her,  if  she  had  said  that  Priests  could  not  make 
the  body  of  Christ :  "  I  have  read,"  she  replied, 
"that  God  made  man;  but  that  man  can  make 
God,  I  never  yet  read,  nor,  I  suppose,  ever  shall." 
"Thou  foolish  woman,"  said  the  Lord  Mayor,  "  is 
it  not  the  Lord's  body,  after  the  words  of  conse- 
cration ?"  She  answered,  that  it  was  then  conse- 
crated or  sacramental  bread  :  and  he  said  to  her, 
u  if  a  mouse  eat  the  bread,  after  the  consecration, 
what  shall  become  of  the  mouse;  what  sayest 
thou,  foolish  woman  ?"  she  desired  to  know  what 
he  said  ;  and,  upon  his  affirming  that  the  mouse 


86 


ANNE  ASKEW. 


[chap. 


was  damned,  could  not  refrain  from  smiling,  and 
saying,  "Alack,  poor  mouse!"  A  priest,  who 
was  sent  to  examine  her  in  private,  asked,  in  the 
same  spirit,  whether  or  not,  if  the  host  fell,  and 
a  beast  ate  it,' the  beast  received  his  maker? 
She  told  him,  as  he  had  thought  proper  to  ask 
the  question,  he  might  solve  it  himself;  she  would 
not,  because  he  was  come  to  tempt  her.  Bonner 
sought  to  inveigle  her,  and  urged  her  boldly  to 
disclose  the  secrets  of  her  heart,  promising  that 
no  hurt  should  be  done  to  her  for  any  thing  which 
she  might  say  under  his  roof.  She  replied,  that 
she  had  nothing  to  disclose ;  for,  thanks  to  God, 
her  conscience  had  nothing  to  burthen  it.  He 
observed,  that  no  wise  chirurgeon  could  minister 
help  to  a  wound,  before  he  had  seen  it  uncover- 
ed. To  this  "  unsavoury  similitude,"  as  she  term- 
ed it,  Anne  Askew  replied,  that  her  conscience 
was  clear,  and  it  would  be  much  folly  to  lay  a 
plaster  to  the  whole  skin.  When  he  prest  her 
closely  upon  the  fatal"  point,  her  answer  was,  that 
she  believed  as  the  Scripture  taught  her. 

For  this  time  she  was  admitted  to  bail  ;  but 
this  was  but  the  prelude  to  a  dreadful  tragedy. 
Being  again  apprehended,  and  brought v  before 
the  Council,  she  seems  to  have  perceived  that 
her  fate  was  determined,  and  to  have  acted  with 
a  temper  ready  for  the  worst.  When  Gardiner 
called  her  a  parrot,  she  told  him  she  was  ready 


XII.] 


ANNE  ASKEW. 


87 


to  suffer,  not  only  his  rebukes,  but  all  that  should 
follow,  .  .  .  yea,  and  gladly.  He  threatened  her 
with  burning.  "  1  have  searched  all  the  Scrip- 
tures," she  replied,  "yet  could  I  never  find  that 
either  Christ  or  his  Apostles  put  any  creature 
to  death." — Upon  a  subsequent  examination,  at 
Guildhall,  she  answered  openly  to  the  deadly 
question,  saying,  that  what  they  called  their  God 
was  a  piece  of  bread.  "  For  proof  thereof,"  said 
she,  "  make  it  when  you  list,  let  it  but  lie  in  the 
box  three  months,  and  it  will  be  mouldy,  and  so 
turn  to  nothing  that  is  good  ;  wherefore  I  am  per- 
suaded that  it  cannot  be  God."  They  then  con- 
demned her  to  the  flames.  She  wrote  to  the 
King,  and  to  the  Chancellor  Wriothesley,  re- 
questing him  to  present  her  paper,  by  which, 
she  said,  if  it  were  truly  conferred  with  the  hard 
judgement  past  upon  her,  his  Grace  would  per- 
ceive that  she  had  been  weighed  in  uneven  ba- 
lances. The  paper  to  the  King  contained  these 
words  :  "  I,  Anne  Askew,  of  good  memory,  al- 
though God  hath  given  me  the  bread  of  adversity 
and  the  water  of  trouble,  yet  not  so  much  as  my 
sins  have  deserved,  desire  this  to  be  known  unto 
your  Grace,  that  forasmuch  as  I  am  by  the  law 
condemned  for  an  evil-doer,  here  I  take  Heaven 
and  earth  to  record,  that  I  shall  die  in  my  inno- 
cency.  And,  according  to  that  I  have  said  first, 
and  will  say  last,  I  utterly  abhor  and  detest  all 


88 


ANNE  ASKEW. 


[chap. 


heresies.  And,  as  concerning  the  Supper  of  the 
Lord,  I  believe  so  much  as  Christ  hath  said 
therein,  which  he  confirmed  with  his  most  blessed 
blood.  I  believe  so  much  as  he  willed  me  to  fol- 
low, and  so  much  as  the  Catholic  Church  of  him 
doth  teach  :  for  I  will  not  forsake  the  command- 
ment of  his  holy  lips.  But  look,  what  God  hath 
charged  me  with  his  mouth,  that  have  I  shut  up 
in  my  heart.  And  thus  briefly  I  end  for  lack  of 
learning." 

Henry's  heart  was  naturally  hard,  and  the  age 
and  the  circumstances  in  which  he  was  placed 
had  steeled  it  against  all  compassion.  Some 
displeasure,  indeed,  he  manifested  shortly  after- 
wards, when  the  Lieutenant  of  the  Tower,  Sir 
Antony  Knevet,  came  to  solicit  pardon  for  having 
disobeyed  the  Chancellor,  by  refusing  to  let  his 
gaoler  stretch  this  lady  on  the  rack  a  second  time, 
after  she  had  endured  it  once,  without  accusing 
any  person  of  partaking  her  opinions.  It  was 
concerning  the  Ladies  of  the  Court  that  she  was 
thus  put  to  the  torture,  in  the  hope  of  implicating 
the  Queen  ;  and,  when  Knevet  would  do  no  more, 
the  Chancellor  Wriothesley,  and  Rich,  who  was 
a  creature  of  Bonner's,  racked  her  with  their  own 
hands,  throwing  off  their  gowns  that  they  might 
perform  their  devilish  office  the  better.  She  bore 
it  without  uttering  cry  or  groan,  though,  imme- 
diately upon  being  loosed,  she  fainted.  Henry 


x„.] 


ANNE  ASKEW. 


89 


readily  forgave  the  Lieutenant,  and  appeared  ill 
pleased  with  his  Chancellor: — but  he  suffered 
his  wicked  ministers  to  consummate  their  crime. 
A  scaffold  was  erected  in  front  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's church,  where  Wriothesley,  the  Duke  of 
Norfolk,  and  others  of  the  King's  Council,  sate 
with  the  Lord  Mayor,  to  witness  the  execution. 
Three  others  were  to  suffer  with  her  for  the  same 
imagined  offence  ;  one  was  a  tailor,  another  a 
priest,  and  the  third  a  Nottinghamshire  gentle- 
man of  the  Lascelles  family,  and  of  the  King's 
household.  The  execution  was  delayed  till  dark- 
ness closed,  that  it  might  appear  the  more  dread- 
ful. Anne  Askew  was  brought  in  a  chair,  for 
they  had  racked  her  till  she  was  unable  to  stand  ; 
and  she  was  held  up  against  the  stake  by  the 
chain  which  fastened  her ;  but  her  constancy, 
and  cheerful  language  of  encouragement,  wrought 
her  companions  in  martyrdom  to  the  same  invin- 
cible fortitude  and  triumphant  hope.  After  a 
sermon  had  been  preached,  the  King's  pardon 
was  offered  to  her,  if  she  would  recant ;  refusing- 
even  to  look  upon  it,  she  made  answer,  that  she 
came  not  there  to  deny  her  Lord !  The  others, 
in  like  manner,  refused  to  purchase  their  lives  at 
such  a  price.  The  reeds  were  then  set  on  fire  : 
— it  was  in  the  month  of  June  ; — and  at  that  mo- 
ment a  few  drops  of  rain  fell,  and  a  thunder  clap 
was  heard,  which  those  in  the  crowd,  who  sym- 


90 


CRANMER. 


pathized  with  the  martyrs,  felt,  as  if  it  were  God's 
own  voice,  accepting  their  sacrifice,  and  receiving 
their  spirits  into  his  everlasting  rest. 

Though  the  Popish  party  could  not  extort  any 
thing  against  the  Queen  in  the  course  of  their 
proceedings ;  they  made  it  matter  of  accusation 
against  her  that  Anne  Askew  had  been  her  friend, 
and  if  she  had  not  been  apprized  of  her  danger 
by  a  friendly  intimation  in  good  time,  and,  with 
singular  dexterity,  known  how  to  avert  it,  she 
might  probably  have  fallen  a  victim.  Some  re- 
maining tenderness  toward  her  in  the  King  ena- 
bled her  to  recover  her  influence  over  him;  and 
perhaps  he  felt  in  some  degree  dependant  upon 
her,  when  his  infirmities  were  now  pressing  upon 
him  heavier  than  his  age.  The  Romanists  were 
not  more  successful  in  their  attempt  at  the  de- 
struction of  Cranmer.  They  represented  to  the 
King,  that  he  and  his  learned  men  had  so  infected 
the  whole  realm  with  his  unsound  doctrine,  that 
three  parts  of  the  land  were  become  abominable 
heretics,  and  England,  in  consequence,  stood  in 
danger  of  being  convulsed  by  such  commotions 
as  had  sprung  up  from  the  same  cause  in  Ger- 
many. They  desired,  therefore,  that  he  might 
be  committed  to  the  Tower ;  for,  being  of  the 
Privy  Council,  unless  he  were  in  durance,  no 
man  would  dare  give  evidence  against  him  ;  but 
when  he  should  be  under  arrest,  they  would  be 


CRANMER. 


91 


bold  to  tell  the  truth,  and  quiet  their  consciences. 
Henry  objected  to  this  course  ;  at  length,  as  if 
convinced  by  their  representations,  he  gave  them 
permission  to  summon  the  Archbishop  before  them 
on  the  morrow,  and  commit  him,  if  they  found 
cause. 

Such,  however,  was  his  inward  conviction  of 
Cranraer's  worth,  that  he,  who,  without  remorse, 
had  sent  two  wives  to  the  scaffold,  could  not 
sleep  upon  this  resolution:  but  a  little  before 
midnight,  sent  privately  to  Lambeth,  and  called 
him  from  his  bed.  The  Archbishop  immediately 
obeyed  this  untimely  summons,  and  hastened  to 
Whitehall,  where  Henry  told  him  what  the  Coun- 
cil had  advised  concerning  him,  and  that  he  had 
granted  their  request ;  "  but  whether  I  have 
done  well  or  no,"  he  added,  "  what  say  you,  my 
lord?"  Cranmer  thanked  him  for  giving  him 
this  warning  before-hand,  and  said  he  was  well 
content  to  be  committed  to  the  Tower  for  the 
trial  of  his  doctrine,  so  he  might  be  fairly  heard, 
and  not  doubting  that  his  Majesty  would  see  him 
so  to  be  used.  Upon  this,  the  King  exclaimed, 
"  O  Lord  God,  what  fond  simplicity  have  you, 
so  to  permit  yourself  to  be  imprisoned  that  every 
enemy  may  have  you  at  advantage  !  Do  not  you 
know,  that  when  they  have  you  once  in  prison, 
three  or  four  false  knaves  will  soon  be  procured 
to  witness  against  you,  and  condemn  you,  which 


32 


CRANMER. 


[chap. 


else  dare  not  open  their  lips,  or  appear  before 
your  face  ?  No,  not  so,  my  Lord,  I  have  better 
regard  unto  you,  than  to  permit  your  enemies  so 
to  overthrow  you  I"  It  is  less  to  Henry's  honour, 
that  in  this  instance  he  should  have  interfered 
to  protect  a  faithful  servant,  than  it  is  to  his 
reproach,  that,  understanding  thus  perfectly  the 
villainy  of  such  proceedings,  he  should  have 
availed  himself  of  it  in  some  cases,  and  permitted 
it  in  so  many  others.  He  then  told  the  Arch- 
bishop, that  when  he  appeared  before  the  Council, 
he  should  require  of  them,  as  being  one  of  their 
body,  the  same  favour  which  they  would  have 
themselves,  that  is,  to  have  his  accusers  brought 
before  him.  If  they  refused  this,  and  were  for 
committing  him  forthwith,  "  then,"  said  he,  "  ap- 
peal you  from  them,  to  our  person,  and  give 
to  them  this  my  ring,  by  which  they  shall  under- 
stand, that  I  have  taken  your  cause  from  them, 
into  my  own  hands." 

Accordingly  Cranmer  was  summoned  by  eight 
o'clock  on  the  following  morning  ;  and  the  Coun- 
cil, as  if  by  that  indecency  they  meant  to  give 
him  a  foretaste  of  what  should  follow,  kept  him 
standing  nearly  an  hour  at  the  council-chamber- 
door,  among  serving-men  and  lacqueys.  This 
was  reported  to  the  King  by  a  friend  of  the  Arch- 
bishop's. "  Have  they  served  him  so  ?"  said 
Henry;  "it  is  well;  I  shall  talk  with  them  by- 


xn.]  CRANMER.  93 

and-by."  At  length  Cranmer  was  called  in,  and 
informed,  that,  seeing  he,  and  others  by  his  per- 
mission, had  infected  the  whole  realm  with  heresy, 
it  was  the  King's  pleasure  he  should  be  commit- 
ted to  the  Tower,  and  there  examined  for  his 
trial.  In  vain  did  Cranmer  solicit  that,  before 
they  proceeded  to  any  farther  extremity,  his  ac- 
cusers might  there  be  confronted  with  him.  The 
Council  acted  as  Henry  had  foreseen,  and  Cran- 
mer then  produced  the  ring.  "  I  am  sorry,  ray 
Lords,"  said  he,  "  that  you  drive  me  to  this  exi- 
gent, to  appeal  from  you  to  the  King's  Majesty, 
who,  by  this  token,  hath  resumed  this  matter 
into  his  own  hand,  and  dischargeth  you  thereof." 
There  was  no  time  for  recovering  from  their  as- 
tonishment and  confusion :  they  were  compelled, 
without  delay,  to  go  before  the  King,  who  re- 
ceived them  sternly,  as  they  had  well  deserved. 
"  Ah,  my  Lords,"  said  he,  "  I  thought  I  had  had 
a  discreet  and  wise  Council,  but  now  I  perceive 
that  I  am  deceived.  How  have  you  handled 
here  my  Lord  of  Canterbury !  What  make  ye  of 
him? — a  slave?  shutting  him  out  of  the  Council 
chamber  among  serving-men!  Would  ye  be  so 
handled  yourselves  ?  I  would  you  should  well 
understand,  that  I  account  my  Lord  of  Canter- 
bury as  faithful  a  man  towards  me,  as  ever  was 
Prelate  in  this  realm,  and  one  to  whom  I  am 
many  ways  beholden,  by  the  faith  I  owe  unto 


94 


CRANMER. 


[chap. 


God."  He  laid  his  hand  upon  his  heart  as  he 
spake,  and  telling  them,  that  they  who  loved  him 
would  upon  that  account  regard  the  Archbishop, 
advised  them  to  put  away  all  malice  against  him, 
and  made  them,  in  his  presence,  submit  to  the 
forms  of  reconciliation.  And  from  that  time,  as 
long  as  Henry  lived,  no  man  dared  whisper  against 
Cranmer. 

But  though  the  King  used  every  means  to  con- 
firm this  reconciliation,  and  for  that  purpose  fre- 
quently brought  the  Archbishop  and  his  enemies 
together  at  his  own  table,  he  perceived  how  hol- 
low it  was  on  the  part  of  the  Romanists ;  and 
giving  in  this  a  memorable  instance  of  foresight, 
he  altered  the  three  Cranes  sable  on  a  field  ar- 
gent, which  were  part  of  Cranmer's  paternal  arms, 
into  three  Pelicans,  telling  him,  these  birds  should 
signify  unto  him,  that  he  ought  to  be  ready,  like 
them,  to  shed  his  blood  for  his  young  ones,  brought 
up  in  the  faith  of  Christ:  "for,"  said  the  King, 
"you  are  like  to  be  tasted  at  length,  if  you  stand 
to  your  tackling." 

The  Romanists  would  have  induced  the  King  to 
take  further  measures  for  counteracting  the  Re- 
formation, had  it  not  been  for  the  just  and  sin- 
cere respect  with  which  he  regarded  Cranmer. 
At  this  time,  the  evil  of  what  had  been  done, 
Avas  verily  more  apparent,  than  the  good.  Preach- 
ing was  become  much  more  frequent ;  but  the 


ABUSE  OF  THE  BIBLE. 


95 


preachers,  instead  of  enforcing  faith,  hope,  and 
charity,  the  consolations,  the  duties,  and  the  re- 
wards of  Christianity,  made  the  pulpit  a  place  of 
controversy,  filled  their  sermons  with  invectives, 
and  contributed  to  exasperate  the  spirit  of  dis- 
cord which  was  abroad.  The  Scriptures  them- 
selves were  abused  by  both  parties ;  the  vain, 
the  arrogant,  and  the  contentious  among  the  Re- 
formers, studied  them  less  for  edification,  than  to 
seek  for  texts  which  might  be  uncharitably  ap- 
plied to  their  opponents ;  or  to  find  matter  for 
unprofitable  and  mischievous  disputation.  Be- 
cause the  Bible  was  in  English,  they  believed 
that  it  was  now  made  level  to  their  capacities, 
and  that  in  all  parts  and  points,  they  understood 
it.  And  the  Romanists  in  an  opposite,  and  not 
less  reprehensible,  temper,  took  advantage  of  the 
abuse  to  derogate  from  the  Bible  itself,  treated 
it  with  irreligious  mockery,  and  made  it  matter 
of  burlesque  and  sport  in  alehouses,  as  others, 
with  little  less  irreverence,  were  making  it  matter 
of  contention  and  anger.  These  abuses  made  the 
King  once  more  prohibit  the  New  Testament, 
and  the  books  of  Wicliffe,  Frith,  and  other  refor- 
mers. 

The  fall  of  the  Howard  family,  and  the  dislike 
with  which  the  King  was  beginning  to  regard 
Gardiner,  would  have  been  followed  by  measures 
favourable  to  the  Reformation,  if  Henry's  life  had 


HENRY'S  WILL 


been  prolonged.  A  treaty  with  the  King  of  France 
was  actually  on  foot,  for  altering  the  mass  into  a 
communion ;  their  intention  was  to  invite  the 
Emperor  to  act  with  them,  and  Cranmer  had  been 
ordered  to  compose  a  form  of  service.  But  this 
was  broken  off  by  Henry's  death.  The  Papists 
asserted,  that  even  before  his  death,  he  was  pu- 
nished by  the  Almighty  in  body  and  in  soul  ;  that 
on  his  death-bed,  he  frequently,  in  a  low  and 
deadly  voice,  repeated  the  names  of  those  reli- 
gioners, who  had  been  put  to  death  for  denying 
his  supremacy  ;...that  he  called  for  a  Catholic 
priest,  but  that  those  who  surrounded  him  would 
not  permit  one  to  approach;  that  he  died  ex- 
claiming "  all  is  lost  !"  and  that  when  his  body 
was  opened,  it  was  found  to  be  a  mass  of  diseased 
fat,  absolutely  without  blood.  The  truth  is,  that 
when  Henry  knew  himself  to  be  dying,  he  chose 
from  all  his  Bishops  and  Chaplains,  to  have  Cran- 
mer with  him  at  that  needful  time.  He  was 
speechless,  but  not  senseless,  when  the  Arch- 
bishop arrived  ;  and  being  desired  to  give  some  to- 
ken that  he  put  his  trust  in  God,  through  Jesus 
Christ,  as  Cranmer,  at  that  awful  hour,  exhorted 
him,  he  pressed  the  Archbishop's  hand  earnestly, 
and  presently  expired. 

He  had  revised  his  will  a  month  before  ;  in 
which,  affirming  his  belief,  that  every  Christian, 
who  endeavoured  to  execute  in  his  life-time,  as 


HENRY'S  WILL. 


91 


he  could,  such  good  deeds  and  charitable  works 
as  Scripture  commandeth,  and  died  in  steadfast 
faith,  is  ordained  by  Christ's  passion  to.  eternal 
life  ;  he  declared,  that  he  verily  trusted,  by  God's 
grace,  to  be  one  of  that  number.  He  expressed 
repentance  for  his  old  and  detestable  life,  and, 
in  full  intention  of  never  returning  to  the  like, 
humbly  and  heartily  bequeathed  his  soul  to  Al- 
mighty God ;  and  earnestly  entreated  the  blessed 
Virgin,  and  all  the  holy  company  of  Heaven,  to 
pray  for  him  continually  while  he  lived,  and  at 
his  passing  hour,  that  he  might  the  sooner  after 
his  departure  obtain  that  everlasting  life,  which 
he  both  hoped  and  claimed  through  Christ's  pas- 
sion. For  his  body,  which,  when  the  soul  is  de- 
parted, would  return  to  the  vile  matter  whereof 
it  was  made,  were  it  not,  he  said,  for  the  crown 
and  dignity  which  God  had  called  him  to,  and 
that  he  would  not  be  counted  an  infringer  of  ho- 
nest worldly  policies  and  customs,  when  they  be 
not  contrary  to  God's  law,  he  could  be  content 
to  have  it  buried  in  any  place  accustomed  for 
Christians,  were  it  never  so  vile,  for  it  was  but 
ashes,  and  to  ashes  it  must  return.  Nevertheless, 
because  he  would  be  loth  in  the  reputation  of  the 
people  to  injure  that  dignity  whereto  he  had  un- 
worthily been  called,  he  desired  it  might  be  laid 
in  the  honourable  tomb  which  he  had  ordered  to 
be  prepared,  and  which  was  already  well  onward: 

VOL.   II.  7 


on 


HENRY  VIII. 


[chap. 


and  there  he  desired  that  the  remains  of  his  true 
and  loving  wife,  Queen  Jane,  might  also  be  re- 
moved ;,  and  a  convenient  altar  set  there,  honour- 
ably prepared  with  all  things  requisite  for  daily 
masses,  there  to  be  said  perpetually,  while  the 
world  should  endure.  And  he  enjoined,  that  a 
thousand  marks  should  be  distributed,  partly 
along  the  way  which  his  funeral  might  travel, 
and  part  at  the  place  of  burial,  to  the  most  poor 
and  needy  people  that  might  be  found,  (common 
beggars  as  much  as  might  be  avoided,)  thereby 
to  move  them,  that  they  might  pray  heartily  for 
the  remission  of  his  offences,  and  the  health  of 
his  soul. 

In  this  temper,  Henry  VIII.  departed,  little 
expecting  how  odious  many  of  his  actions  would 
appear  to  posterity,  and  perhaps  not  reckoning 
the  worst  of  them  among  the  things  of  which  he 
repented.  It  is  more  remarkable,  that  so  many 
revolting  acts  of  caprice  and  cruelty  did  not  de- 
prive him  of  the  affection  of  his  subjects,  but 
that  he  retained  his  popularity  to  the  last.  This 
could  not  have  been,  had  he  been  the  mere  mon- 
ster, which,  upon  a  cursory  view  of  his  history, 
he  must  needs  appear  to  every  young  and  inge- 
nuous mind.  Large  allowances  are  to  be  made 
for  an  age,  wherein  the  frequency  of  atrocious 
punishments  had  hardened  the  public  character, 
and  rendered  all  men  (the  very  few  excepted,  who 


HENRY  VIII. 


m 


seem  to  be  so  constituted,  that  no  circumstances 
can  corrupt  them)  unfeeling  to  a  degree,  which 
happily  we,  in  these  days,  are  hardly  capable  of 
conceiving.  Much  must  also  be  allowed  for  his 
situation.  The  person,  whose  moral  nature  is  not 
injured  by  the  possession  of  absolute  power,  must 
be  even  more  elevated  above  his  fellow  creatures 
in  wisdom  and  in  virtue,  than  in  authority;  and 
that  Henry  was,  in  fact,  as  absolute  as  any  of 
the  Cassars,  he  knew,  and  none  of  his  subjects 
would  have  disputed.  If  his  heart  had  been 
open  to  any  compunctious  visitings,  the  ready 
assent  with  which  the  intimation  of  his  will,  in 
its  worst  purposes,  was  received  by  obsequious 
counsellors  and  servile  parliaments,  would  have 
repressed  them.  Whatever  was  his  pleasure, 
they  pronounced  to  be  just  and  lawful.  When 
he  sent  a  minister  or  a  wife  to  the  scaffold,  with 
as  little  compassion  as  he  would  have  shown  in 
ordering  a  dog  to  be  drowned,  he  felt  no  weight 
upon  his  conscience,  because  the  murder  was  per- 
formed with  all  the  legality  which  could  be  given 
it  by  Acts  of  Parliament,  formalities  of  law,  and 
courts  of  justice ! 

The  qualities  which  endeared  him  to  his  sub- 
jects were,  probably,  his  lavish  liberality,  and 
that  affability  in  his  better  moods  which,  in  the 
great,  has  always  the  semblance,  and  frequently 
something  of  the  reality,  of  goodness.  He  never 
7 


100  HENRY  VIII.  [chaf. 

raised  any  man  to  rank  and  power,  who  was  not 
worthy  of  elevation  for  his  attainments  and  capa- 
city, whatever  he  might  be  in  other  respects.  To 
be  in  Henry's  service,  and  more  especially  to  be 
in  his  confidence,  was  a  sure  proof  of  ability;  and 
thus  it  was,  that  though  he  had  some  wicked 
counsellors,  he  never  had  a  weak  one. . .  .Wolsey 
discovered  no  weakness,  till  his  master's  favour 
encouraged  him  to  aspire  at  the  Papacy,  and  then 
indeed  ambition  blinded  him.  He  was  the  muni- 
ficent patron  of  literature  and  the  arts;  and  it  is 
to  the  example  which  he  set,  of  giving  his  daugh- 
ters as  well  as  his  son  a  learned  education,  that 
England  is  indebted  for  the  women  and  the  men 
of  the  Elizabethan  age. 

With  regard  to  the  Church  of  England,  its 
foundations  rest  upon  the  rock  of  Scripture,  not 
upon  the  character  of  the  King  by  whom  they 
were  laid.  This,  however,  must  be  affirmed  in 
justice  to  Henry,  that  mixed  as  the  motives  were 
which  first  induced  him  to  disclaim  the  Pope's 
authority,  in  all  the  subsequent  measures  he 
acted  sincerely,  knowing  the  importance  of  the 
work  in  which  he  had  engaged,  and  prosecuting 
it  sedulously  and  conscientiously,  even  when  most 
erroneous.  That  religion  should  have  had  so 
little  influence  upon  his  moral  conduct  will  not  ap- 
pear strange,  if  we  consider  what  the  religion 
was  wherein  he  was  trained  up  : . .  .nor  if  we  look 


XII.] 


HENRY  VIII. 


101 


at  the  generality  of  men  even  now,  under  circum- 
stances immeasurably  more  fortunate  than  those 
in  which  he  was  placed.  Undeniable  proofs  re- 
main of  the  learning,  ability,  and  diligence,  with 
which  he  applied  himself  to  the  great  business  of 
weeding  out  superstition,  and  yet  preserving  what 
he  believed  to  be  the  essentials  of  Christianity 
untouched.  This  praise  (and  it  is  no  light  one) 
is  his  due  :  and  it  is  our  part  to  be  thankful  to 
that  all-ruling  Providence,  which  rendered  even 
his  passions  and  his  vices  subservient  to  this  im- 
portant end. 


102 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


EDWARD  VI. 

Edward  VI.  was  little  more  than  nine  years  of 
age  when  he  succeeded  to  the  throne.  The  first 
six  he  had  been  bred  up  among  the  women, 
and  afterwards  Dr.  Cox  and  Sir  John  Cheke 
Avere  appointed  his  preceptors,. .  .names  well 
known  in  the  history  of  the  Reformation  and  of 
literature.  Abler  tutors  could  not  have  been 
provided;  they  directed  his  education  to  the  best 
objects,  and  the  progress  of  their  pupil  corres- 
ponded to  their  desires ;  for,  with  his  mother's 
gentleness  and  suavity  of  disposition,  he  inher- 
ited his  father's  capacity  and  diligence  and  love 
of  learning.  At  his  coronation,  when  the  three 
swords,  for  the  three  kingdoms,  were  brought 
to  be  carried  before  him,  he  observed,  that 
there  was  one  yet  wanting,  and  called  for 
the  Bible  :  "  That,"  said  he,  "  is  the  sword  of 
the  Spirit,  and  ought  in  all  right  to  govern  us, 
who  use  these  for  the  people's  safety,  by  God's 
appointment.  Without  that  sword  we  are  no- 
thing ;   we   can  do  nothing.    From  that  we  are 


CHAP.  XIII.] 


EDWARD  VI. 


103 


what  we  are  this  day;.,,  we  receive  whatsoever 
it  is  that  we  at  this  present  do  assume.  Under 
that  we  ought  to  live,  to  fight,  to  govern  the 
people,  and  to  perform  all  our  affairs.  From  that 
alone  we  obtain  all  power,  virtue,  grace,  salvation, 
and  whatsoever  we  have  of  divine  strength." 
Child  as  he  was,  so  well  had  he  been  trained, 
and  so  excellent  was  his  moral  and  intellectual  na- 
ture, that  he  was  capable  of  thus  thinking  and 
thus  expressing  himself.  One,  who  was  about  his 
person,  says  of  him,  "  If  ye  knew  the  towardness 
of  that  young  Prince,  your  hearts  would  melt  to 
hear  him  named:... the  beautifullest  creature 
that  liveth  under  the  sun;  the  wittiest,  the  most 
amiable, . . .  and  the  gentlest  thing  of  all  the 
world."  "  No  pen,"  says  Fuller,  "  passeth  by  him 
without  praising  him,  though  none  praising  him 
to  his  full  deserts." 

His  uncle,  Edward  Seymour,  Earl  of  Hertford, 
was  appointed  Governor  of  the  King's  person 
and  Lord  Protector,  and  forthwith  created  Duke 
of  Somerset.  The  Reformation  now  proceeded 
without  impediment  ;  but  plunder  and  havoc 
kept  pace  with  it;  for,  by  one  of  those  unnatu- 
ral leagues,  in  which  men  with  the  purest  inten- 
tions sometimes  find  themselves  involved,  the 
most  religious  members  of  the  Church,  and  the 
veriest  worldlings  of  the  state,  went  hand  in 
hand :  the  former,  acquiescing  in        evil  which 


104 


EDWARD  VI. 


[CHAf. 


they  could  not  prevent,  for  the  sake  of  bringing 
about  the  good  at  which  they  aimed  ;  the  latter, 
promoting  that  good,  because  they  made  it  sub- 
servient to  their  own  selfish  and  rapacious  ends. 

Cranmer's  disposition,  as  well  as  his  principles, 
inclined  him  to  proceed  discreetly  and  with  mo- 
deration, in  the  changes  which  were  still  neces- 
sary. The  progress  of  his  own  mind  had  been 
slow ;  laying  aside  no  received  opinion,  till  he 
had  thoroughly  investigated  the  point,  and  as- 
certained, by  painful  and  deliberate  inquiry, 
that  it  rested  upon  no  sufficient  grounds  of  Scrip- 
ture, and  that  the  authority  of  the  better  ages 
was  against  it.  It  was  not  till  the  last  year  of 
King  Henry's  reign,  that  he  gave  up  the  tenet 
of  transubstantiation.  His  opinion  had  been 
shaken  by  the  arguments  and  allegations  of  some 
persons,  who  were  convented  before  him  for  de- 
nying it.  Frith's  book  confirmed  the  impression 
which  had  thus  been  made  ;  and,  finally,  he 
became  satisfied  that  the  doctrine  was  as  little 
scriptural  as  the  term.  Ridley,  by  the  same 
course,  came  to  the  same  conclusion  :  and  Latimer, 
not  long  afterward,  laid  aside,  in  like  manner, 
the  last  error  of  Popery  which  clung  to  him. 
These  good  men  held  the  due  mean,  between 
that  bigotry  which  allows  not  itself  to  question 
the  grounds  upon  which  any  of  its  opinions  are 
founded,  and   the   levity  which  embraces  new 


XIII.] 


EDWARD  VI. 


105 


doctrines  without  consideration,  and  presently 
casts  them  off,  as  inconsiderately  as  it  received 
them.  Had  the  work  of  reform  been  conducted 
by  the  Slate,  as  temperately  as  by  the  Church, 
it  would  have  been,  in  all  points,  without  re- 
proach. But  the  religious  and  the  statistic  mea- 
sures must  not  be  confounded.  Reformation  was 
the  aim  and  effect  of  the  former ;  spoliation,  of 
the  latter. 

The  first  ecclesiastical  injunctions  which  were 
set  forth,  by  the  King's  command,  enjoined  that 
the  Clergy  should,  once  a  quarter  at  least,  dis- 
suade the  people  from  pilgrimages  and  image- 
worship;  and  that  images,  which  had  been 
abused  with  pilgrimages  and  offerings,  should 
be  destroyed.  All  shrines,  with  their  coverings, 
tables,  candlesticks,  trindills  or  rolls  of  wax, 
pictures,  and  other  monuments  of  feigned  mira- 
cles, were  to  be  taken  away  and  destroyed,  so 
that  no  memory  of  them  should  remain  in  walls 
or  windows  ;  and  the  people  were  to  be  exhorted 
to  make  the  like  clearance  in  their  houses.  PuU 
pits  were  to  be  provided.  The  Lord's  Prayer, 
the  Creed,  and  the  Commandments,  were  to  be 
recited  by  the  Priest,  from  the  pulpit,  on  holy- 
days,  when  there  was  no  sermon ;  and  no  per- 
son, who  could  not  recite  them,  should  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  Sacrament.  No  person  might 
preach  unless  he  were  licensed  ;  and  because  of 


106 


EDWARD  VI 


[chat. 


the  lack  of  preachers,  the  curates  were  to  read 
homilies,  which  would  be  set  forth  by  the  King's 
authority.  A  register  was  to  be  kept  in  every 
parish,  for  marriages,  christenings,  and  burials. 
The  fifth  part  of  every  benefice  was  to  be  ex- 
pended on  the  mansion  house  or  chancel,  till 
both  should  he  in  full  repair  ;  and  for  every  hun- 
dred a  year  which  a  Clergyman  possessed,  in 
Church  preferment,  he  should  give  a  competent 
exhibition  to  a  scholar  at  the  University.  Holy- 
days  were  to  be  kept  holy;  but  it  was  declared 
lawful  for  the  people  to  work  upon  them  in  time 
of  harvest,  and  save  that  which  God  hath  sent ; 
scrupulosity,  on  such  occasions,  being  pronounced 
sinful. 

The  people,  in  many  places,  had  begun  to 
demolish  images,  before  these  injunctions  were 
issued:  not  that  the  majority  would  willingly 
have  parted  with  them;  but  that,  when  a  few 
zealots  began  the  work  of  demolition,  enough 
were  ready  to  assist,  for  the  love  of  havoc,  even 
when  there  was  no  hope  of  plunder.  The  Re- 
formers held  it  unlawful  to  tolerate  what  they 
believed  was  prohibited  by  the  second  Com- 
mandment. The  late  King  had  maintained, 
against  Cranmer,  that  that  prohibition  related  to 
the  Jews,  and  not  to  us  :  and  Gardiner  now  ar- 
gued, that  pictures  and  images  were  as  service- 
able as  books,  and  that  devotional  feelings  might 


xnr.j 


EDWARD  VI 


107 


as  lawfully  and  effectually  be  excited  through 
the  eye  as  through  the  ear.  The  contrary  opinion 
prevailed,  because  frauds  and  superstitions  had 
been  so  gross  and  palpable  ;  and  thus,  as  has  too 
frequently  happened,  the  use  of  what,  in  itself, 
might  be  good,  was  forbidden,  because  of  the 
abuses  to  which  it  had  given  occasion. 

The  very  circumstance  of  Henry's  having  or- 
dered in  his  will  perpetual  masses  for  his  soul, 
led  to  an  inquiry,  whether  such  masses  were  not 
vain  and  superstitious,  and  therefore  unlawful. 
The  Romanists  insisted  that  all  things  should  be 
maintained  in  the  state  wherein  the  late  King  had 
left  them,  (he  having  been  not  only  the  most 
learned  Prince  in  the  world,  but  the  most  learned 
divine  also)  ...  at  least  till  the  present  Sovereign 
should  be  of  age.  On  the  other  hand,  it  was 
asserted,  that  at  the  time  of  his  death  he  had 
been  preparing  to  change  the  Mass  into  a  Com- 
munion, and  that  a  matter,  wherein  the  salvation 
of  souls  was  concerned,  ought  not  to  be  delayed. 
The  Protestants  were  now  a  majority  in  the  Go- 
vernment. An  Act  was  passed,  ordering  that 
the  Sacrament  should  be  administered  in  both 
kinds,  conformably  to  our  Saviour's  institution, 
and  the  custom  of  the  Church  for  the  first  five 
centuries.  Private  Masses  were  put  down  .  .  . 
one  of  the  most  lucrative  practices  of  the  Romish 
Church.    The  same  Act  appointed  discretionary 


108 


EDWARD  VI. 


[chap. 


fine  and  imprisonment,  as  the  punishment  of 
those  who  should  treat  the  question  of  the  Sacra- 
ment with  irreverence,  either  in  sermons  or  in 
ribald  treatises,  with  which  the  press  now  began 
to  abound,  both  in  prose  and  rhyme. 

There  was  a  great  difficulty  in  finding  persons 
who  might  safely  be  licensed  to  preach  :  the  dan- 
ger was  not  from  the  Papal  clergy,  but  from 
those  headstrong  men  who  thought  that  all  ves- 
tiges of  Popery  ought  to  be  removed,  and  that 
the  difference  between  the  old  and  the  reformed 
Church  could  never  be  made  too  wide.  Admo- 
nition to  such  people  was  found  useless,  and  no 
other  means  remained  of  stopping  seditious  preach- 
ing, (for  such  it  had  become,)  than  by  forbid- 
ding any  person  whatever  to  preach,  except  such 
as  were  licensed  by  the  King,  the  Protector,  or 
the  Primate,  under  their  seals  .  .  .  the  Bishops 
themselves  being  included  in  this  prohibition  .  .  . 
But  such  sermons,  addressing  the  vanity  of  the 
hearers,  and  encouraging  their  presumption,  in- 
disposed them  for  the  homilies.  They  who  had 
been  thus  flattered  and  appealed  to,  disrelished 
plain  and  wholesome  instruction;  .  .  .  and  some- 
times the  congregation  manifested  their  dislike, 
by  talking  while  they  were  read;  sometimes  the 
reader,  by  gabbling  through  the  homily  in  such 
a  manner  that  those  who  were  inclined  to  listen, 
could  not  follow  the  hurried  and  contemptuous 
delivery. 


XIII.J 


EDWARD  VI. 


109 


When  the  new  office  for  the  Communion  was 
set  forth,  the  point  of  confession  was  left  free. 
Such  as  desired  to  make  their  confession  to  a 
priest,  were  admonished  not  to  censure  those  who 
were  satisfied  with  confessing  to  God,  and  the 
latter  not  to  be  offended  with  those  who  conti- 
nued in  the  practice  of  auricular  confession;  all 
being  exhorted  to  keep  the  rule  of  charity,  follow 
their  own  conscience,  and  not  to  judge  others  in 
things  not  appointed  by  Scripture.  A  Liturgy 
was  prepared,  with  the  same  sound  judgement 
which  characterized  all  those  measures  wherein 
Cranmer  had  the  lead.  It  was  compiled  from 
the  different  Romish  offices  used  in  this  kingdom  ; 
whatever  was  unexceptionable  was  retained,  all 
that  savoured  of  superstition  was  discarded  ;  the 
prayers  to  the  saints  were  expunged,  and  all  their 
lying  legends ;  and  the  people  were  provided 
with  a  Christian  ritual  in  their  own  tongue.  And 
so  judiciously  was  this  done,  that  while  nothing 
which  could  offend  the  feelings  of  a  reasonable 
Protestant  was  left,  nothing  was  inserted  which 
should  prevent  the  most  conscientious  Catholic 
from  joining  in  the  service. 

The  act  which  repealed  all  laws  and  canons 
that  required  the  Clergy  to  live  in  celibacy,  was 
not  less  important.  Strange  as  it  may  appear, 
nothing  in  the  course  of  the  Reformation  gave  so 
much  offence  to  the  Papists  as  the  marriage  of 


110  MARRIAGE  OF  THE  CLERGY.  [chap. 


the  Clergy  ;  they  looked  upon  the  first  race  as 
perjured  by  it,  and  considered  it  always  after- 
wards as  a  desecration  of  the  ministers  of  the 
altar.  There  is  no  topic  to  which  Sir  Thomas 
More,  in  his  controversial  writings,  reverts  so 
frequently,  or  treats  with  so  much  asperity.  The 
inconveniences  which  have  resulted  are,  that  chil- 
dren are  sometimes,  upon  the  father's  death, 
left  destitute,  often  in  distressful  circumstances  ; 
and  that,  among  the  higher  clergy,  wealth  which 
might  more  fitly  be  appropriated  to  pious  pur- 
poses has  sometimes  been  employed  in  aggran- 
dizing private  families.  But  the  Popes  themselves 
have  so  frequently  made  this  use  of  their  power, 
that  a  word  has  been  formed  to  denote  the  pro- 
pensity :  and  the  former  is  part  of  a  great  and 
increasing  evil,  for  which  effectual  remedies  would 
soon  be  devised,  if  half  as  much  zeal  were  ex- 
erted in  removing  the  real  evils  of  society,  as 
is  mischievously  employed  in  combating  imagi- 
nary grievances.  One  generation  did  not  pass 
away,  before  it  was  seen  that  the  Protestant 
Clergy  were  not  withheld,  by  their  connubial 
and  parental  ties,  from  encountering  martyrdom, 
when  conscience  required  the  sacrifice.  And  in 
our  days,  when  Protestant  missions  have  first 
been  undertaken  upon  a  great  scale,  and  carried 
on  with  perseverance,  it  has  been  found  that  the 
wives  of  the  Missionaries  have  contributed  their 


san,] 


HOOPER. 


ill 


full  share  to  the  success  which  has  been  ob- 
tained. 

Gardiner  and  Bonner,  refusing  their  consent  to 
these  momentous  changes,  were  deprived  of  their 
Sees,  (the  former,  after  much  tergiversation,) 
and  imprisoned,  but  no  rigour  was  used  toward 
them ;  nor  did  the  Protestants,  in  any  instance, 
abuse  their  triumph  by  retaliating  upon  the  Pa- 
pists, for  the  persecution  which  they  had  endured. 
But  hardly  had  they,  as  they  deemed,  secured 
their  triumph,  when  an  unhappy  difference  arose 
among  them,  concerning  things  in  themselves 
indifferent.  Hooper  gave  occasion  to  this  dis- 
pute :  having  been  obliged  to  fly  the  kingdom 
when  the  Six  Articles  were  enforced,  he  brought 
back  with  him  from  Switzerland  some  Calvinistic 
prejudices ;  and  when  he  was  now  appointed  to 
the  Bishopric  of  Gloucester,  refused  to  wear  the 
episcopal  habit  at  his  consecration.  He  is  de- 
scribed as  a  man  "  of  strong  body,  sound  health, 
pregnant  wit,  and  invincible  patience :  spare  of 
diet,  sparer  of  words,  and  sparest  of  time  :  harsh, 
rough,  and  unpleasant  in  behaviour,  being  grave 
with  rigour,  and  severe  with  surliness."  "  Yet 
to  speak  truth,  (says  Fuller,  the  best-natured 
of  historians  himself,)  all  Hooper's  ill-nature  con- 
sisted in  other  men's  little  acquaintance  with 
him.  Such  as  visited  him  once,  condemned  him 
of  over-austerity ;  who  repaired  to  him  twice. 


112 


HOOPER. 


[chap. 


only  suspected  him  of  the  same ;  who  conversed 
with  him  constantly,  not  only  acquitted  him  of 
all  morosity,  but  commended  him  for  sweetness 
of  manners."  Dudley,  then  Earl  of  Warwick,  af- 
terwards Duke  of  Northumberland,  was  Hooper's 
patron,  and  wrote  to  Cranmer,  requesting  that 
he  would  bear  with  him  in  such  reasonable  things 
as  he  desired,  and  not  charge  him  with  the  oath 
of  canonical  obedience,  which  was  burdensome 
to  his  conscience  ;  and  the  King,  under  this  in- 
fluence, discharged  Cianmer  from  any  danger  of 
incurring  a  Premunire,  by  dispensing  with  the 
forms  to  which  Hooper  objected.  But  Cranmer 
knew  that  a  mere  letter  from  the  King  could  be 
no  protection  against  the  law.  Ridley,  who  had 
been  appointed  to  Bonner's  vacant  See,  was 
chosen  to  argue  with  Hooper,  and  convince  him 
of  the  unreasonableness  of  such  scruples  ;  but 
he  had  taken  up  the  notion,  that  whatever  is  not 
of  faith,  is  sin;  and  their  conference  ended  only 
in  heating  them  both,  and  producing  an  ill-will 
of  long  continuance.  Bucer  and  Peter  Martyr, 
men  who  were  both  deservedly  held  in  high 
estimation  here,  were  applied  to  ;  and  they, 
though  agreeing  with  Hooper,  in  wishing  for  the 
disuse  of  all  such  conformities  with  the  Romish 
Church,  saw,  nevertheless,  how  desirable  it  was 
that  nothing  should  be  done  unnecessarily  to 
offend  the  Catholics,  and  urged  him  to  compli- 


xnr] 


HOOPER. 


113 


ance.  They  cautioned  him,  also,  to  take  heed 
lest,  by  unseasonable  and  bitter  sermons,  he 
should  prevent  the  great  good  which  his  preach- 
ing and  teaching  would  otherwise  effect.  Instead 
of  deferring  to  this  wholesome  advise,  he  appears 
to  have  provoked  an  order  from  the  Privy 
Council,  commanding  him  to  keep  his  house  f 
and  as,  during  that  restraint,  he  published  his 
opinions,  in  a  manner  which  tended  to  widen 
the  difference,  they  committed  him  to  Cranmer's 
custody,  either  there  to  be  reformed,  or  further 
punished,  as  the  case  might  require.  Cranmer's 
report  was,  that  he  could  not  be  brought  to  con- 
formity, being  inclined  to  prescribe  laws,  and 
not  to  obey  them :  upon  which,  he  was  sent  to 
the  Fleet  prison.  Such  measures  would  have 
provoked  a  stubborn  heart ;  Hooper's  was  a  sin- 
cere and  noble  one.  Weighing  the  matter  dis- 
passionately, he  perceived  that  he  was  wrong  in 
his  opposition  ;  and  having  signified  this,  to  the 
joy  of  the  Protestant  Church,  abroad  as  well  as 
at  home,  he  was  consecrated,  and  took  possession 
of  his  diocese,  there  to  discharge  his  arduous  du- 
ties with  exemplary  zeal,  and  finally  to  close  a  ho- 
ly and  a  virtuous  life  by  martyrdom. 

The  substitution  of  a  table,  in  place  of  an 
altar,  is  ascribed  to  Hooper's  influence.  As  a 
reason  for  assenting  to  it,  in  his  diocese,  Ridley 
stated,  that    as    one  form  was  used   in  some 

vol.  u.  8 


114  THE  SACRAMENTAL  TABLE.  [chap 


churches,  and  the  other  in  others,  dissensions 
were  thus  occasioned  among  the  unlearned;  and 
therefore,  wishing  a  godly  unity  to  be  observed, 
and  because  the  form  of  a  table  might  move  the 
simple  from  the  old  superstitious  opinions  of  the 
Popish  Mass,  he  directed  that  the  Lord's  Board 
should  be  set  up  in  that  form,  decently  covered, 
in  such  place  of  the  quire,  or  chancel,  as  the 
Curates,  Churchwardens  and  Questmen,  might 
think  best ;  and  all  other  side-altars  or  tables  to 
be  removed.  The  people  had  been  taught,  by 
a  Church  book,  called  the  Festival,  which  had 
been  set  forth  in  Henry  the  Seventh's  time,  and 
was  hardly  yet  laid  aside,  that  whatever  needful 
and  lawful  things  they  might  pray  for  on  the 
day  when  they  heard  Mass,  God  would  grant; 
that  idle  oaths  and  sins,  which  they  had  forgotten 
to  confess,  were  on  that  day  forgiven  them ;  they 
should  neither  lose  their  sight,  nor  die  suddenly, 
on  that  day ;  and  that  the  time  which  they  em- 
ployed in  that  holy  service  would  not  be  carried 
to  the  sum  appointed  for  their  lives.  It  was 
most  desirable  that  they  should  be  undeceived 
from  such  superstition,  and  from  the  opinion 
that  a  real  sacrifice  was  performed  when  the 
Sacrament  was  administered ;  and  it  might  be 
more  difficult  to  effect  this,  while  altars  were  con- 
sidered as  rendered  sacred  by  the  relics  which 
they  contained.     And  yet  the  reasons  against 


Jan.] 


CHURCH  PLUNDER. 


115 


such  a  change  ought  to  have  preponderated. 
An  alteration,  which  was  not  essential  upon  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  Protestant  reform, 
tended  to  disgust  the  adherents  of  the  Romish 
Church,  who  certainly  were  still  the  great  majori- 
ty of  the  people :  it  was  more  needful  to  con- 
ciliate them,  than  the  zealots  of  the  Reformation  ; 
and  it  was  more  practicable  also,  for  concessions, 
in  such  cases,  never  fail  to  call  forth  farther  de- 
mands. They  who  abhorred  the  altar,  were 
likely  soon  to  treat  the  table  with  irreverence. 

There  was  also  the  farther  evil,  that  fresh 
opportunity  was  given  for  sacrilegious  pillage. 
"  Private  men's  halls  were  now  hung  with  altar- 
cloths  ;  their  tables  and  beds  covered  with  copes, 
instead  of  carpets  and  coverlets."  "  It  was  a 
sorry  house  which  had  not  somewhat  of  this 
furniture,  though  it  were  only  a  fair  large  cushion 
covered  with  such  spoils,  to  adorn  their  windows, 
or  make  their  chairs  have  something  in  them 
of  a  chair  of  state."  Chalices  were  used  for 
carousing  cups  at  the  tables  of  the  bolder  plun- 
derers ;  and  horses  were  watered  in  the  stone 
and  marble  coffins  of  the  dead ;  for  never  before, 
in  any  Christian  country,  had  such  demolition 
of  churches  been  made.  Three  episcopal  houses, 
two  churches,  a  chapel,  a  cloister,  and  a  charnel- 
house,  were  pulled  down  by  Somerset,  to  clear 
the  site  for  his  palace,  and  supply  materials  for 
8 


116 


SOMERSET. 


[chap. 


it.  When  the  graves  were  opened,  in  this  and 
other  like  works  of  sacrilegious  indecency,  many 
caskets  full  of  indulgences  were  found,  which 
had  been  laid  in  the  coffins  with  the  dead.  The 
bones  were  carried  away  by  cartloads,  and  buried 
in  Bloomsbury.  The  good  feelings  of  the  country 
were  shocked  at  such  sights;  and  when  he  would 
in  like  manner  have  pulled  down  St.  Margaret's 
Church,  the  parishioners  rose  and  drove  away 
the  workmen. 

Somerset,  if  he  had  lived  in  happier  times, 
was  a  man  who  might  have  left  an  unreproached 
and  honourable  name  :  his  manners  were  affable, 
his  disposition  frank  and  generous.  But  his 
memory  is  deeply  stained  with  the  guilt  of  this 
execrable  spoliation,  in  which  no  man  partook 
more  largely.  He  contributed,  under  cover  of 
the  Reformation,  to  bring  into  England  the  abuse 
of  bestowing  Church  preferment  upon  laymen; 
a  scandal  from  which,  greatly  as  it  prevailed 
abroad,  this  country  had  been  remarkably  free. 
We  had  had  no  secular  Abbots,  who  were  com- 
plained of,  in  Spain,  as  the  fretting  worms  of  the 
Monastic  orders ;  but  Somerset,  even  before  hia, 
nephew  succeeded  to  the  throne,  had  secured  to 
himself  a  Deanery,  the  treasurership  of  a  Ca- 
thedral, and  four  of  its  best  Prebends  ;  and 
charged  a  Bishopric  with  the  payment  of  300/. 
a  year  to  his  son.    Much  of  the  remaining  pro- 


XIII.] 


SOMERSET. 


117 


perty  of  the  Church  was  in  like  manner  bestowed 
upon  laymen,  to  the  grievous  discouragement 
of  learning.  Men,  who  were  not  authorized  by 
his  orders,  were  encouraged  by  his  example,  to 
appropriate  the  spoil  of  Chapels  and  Churches, 
which,  if  not  willingly  surrendered  to  them  by 
the  poor  Churchwardens,  they  extorted  by 
threats,  or  took  away  by  violence.  Cranmer 
procured  a  letter  from  the  Council,  to  stop  this 
evil ;  but  such  prohibitions  were  of  little  avail, 
when  the  person  of  most  authority  in  the  Council 
was  known  to  take  for  himself  all  that  he  could 
obtain.  Nothing  for  which  purchasers  could  be 
found  escaped  the  rapacity  of  these  plunderers. 
Tombs  were  stripped  of  their  monumental 
brasses ;  churches  of  their  lead.  Bells,  to  be 
cast  into  cannon,  were  exported  in  such  quanti- 
ties, that  their  farther  exportation  was  forbidden, 
lest  metal  for  the  same  use  should  be  wanting 
at  home.  Somerset  pretended  that  one  bell  in 
a  steeple  was  sufficient  for  summoning  the  people 
to  prayers  ;  and  the  country  was  thus  in  danger 
of  losing  its  best  music,. ..  a  music,  hallowed  by 
all  circumstances,  .  .  .  which,  according  equally 
with  social  exultation  and  with  solitary  pensive- 
ness,  though  it  falls  upon  many  an  unheeding 
ear,  never  fails  to  find  some  hearts  which  it  ex- 
hilarates, and  some  which  it  softens. 


118 


CHANTRIES. 


[chap. 


One  of  the  first  acts  of  Parliament,  under  the 
new  reign,  had  been  to  confer  upon  the  King  all 
Chantries,  Free  Chapels,  and  Colleges.  Under 
the  former  title,  lands  or  houses  were  bequeathed 
to  particular  churches,  for  maintaining  priests, 
who  should  daily  perform  mass  for  the  souls  of 
the  founders,  and  other  such  persons  as  were 
specified  in  the  deed  of  endowment.  There 
were  forty-seven  such  belonging  to  St.  Paul's. 
Free  Chapels  were  separate  places  of  worship, 
erected  and  endowed  for  the  same  purpose. 
The  surplus  revenue,  after  the  Priest's  salary 
was  discharged  was  appropriated  to  religious 
uses;  either  in  supporting  free-schools,  or  scho- 
lars at  the  Universities,  or  in  alms.  Henry's 
executors  brought  in  this  Act :  the  Abbey  lands 
had  all  been  wasted ;  and  without  some  such 
resource,  they  found  themselves  unable  to  pay 
his  debts  ;  and,  what  touched  them  more  nearly, 
...  to  satisfy  their  own  pretensions.  It  was  op- 
posed, not  only  by  the  Popish  Bishops,  but  by 
Cranmer.  He  was  for  reforming  these  founda- 
tions, but  for  preserving  them  till  the  King 
should  come  of  age  ;  not  doubting,  from  his 
excellent  disposition,  but  that  he  would  then 
apply  them  to  the  best  purpose, . . .  that  of  im- 
proving the  condition  of  the  poor  Clergy.  For 
the  Reformation,  or  rather  the  spoliation  which 


xiii.]       DESTRUCTION  OF  MONASTERIES.  119 


accompanied  it,  had  miserably  impoverished  the 
inferior  Clergy,  by  transferring  the  impropriated 
tithes  to  lay  hands.  This  argument  was  of  no 
avail;  and  the  Chantry  lands  went, . . .  as  the  Ab- 
bey lands  had  gone  before  them. 

They  who  divided  the  spoil  were  not  content 
while  any  thing  remained  untouched.  Sir  Philip 
Hoby  recommended  that  all  the  Prebends  should 
be  converted  to  the  King's  use :  and  the  Pro- 
tector's brother,  the  Lord  Admiral,  a  bold,  bad 
man,  represented,  that  Bishops  ought  not  to  be 
troubled  with  temporal  concerns;  and  that  it 
would  be  right  to  make  them  surrender  all  their 
royalties  and  temporalities  to  his  Majesty,  and 
receive  an  honest  pension  of  money,  yearly  al- 
lowed to  them,  for  hospitality.  But  he  received 
for  this  a  memorable  rebuke.  The  King  told  him, 
that  he  knew  his  purpose  :  "  You  have  had  among 
you,"  said  he,  "  the  commodities  of  the  Abbeys, 
which  you  have  consumed, ...  some  with  super- 
fluous apparel,  some  at  dice  and  cards,  and  other 
ungracious  rule.  And  now,  you  would  have  the 
Bishop's  lands  and  revenues  to  abuse  likewise ! 
Set  your  hearts  at  rest :  there  shall  no  such  al- 
teration be  made  while  I  live !" 

The  merciless  destruction  with  which  this  vio- 
lent transfer  of  property  was  accompanied,  as  it 
remains  a  lasting  and  ineffaceable  reproach  upon 
those  who  partook  the  plunder,  or  permitted  it. 


120 


GLASTONBURY. 


[chap. 


so  would  it  be  a  stain  upon  the  national  charac- 
ter, if  men,  when  they  break  loose  from  restraint, 
were  not  every  where  the  same.  Who  can  call 
to  mind,  without  grief  and  indignation,  how  many 
magnificent  edifices  were  overthrown  in  this 
undistinguishing  havoc  ! .  .  .  Malmsbury,  Battle, 
Waltham,  Malvern,  Lantony,  Rivaux,  Fountains, 
Whalley,  Kirkstall,  and  so  many  others,  the 
noblest  works  of  architecture,  and  the  most  ve- 
nerable monuments  of  antiquity,  each  the  bless- 
ing of  the  surrounding  country,  and,  collectively, 
the  glory  of  the  land  !  Glastonbury,  which  was 
the  most  venerable  of  all,  even  less  for  its  un- 
doubted age,  than  for  the  circumstances  con- 
nected with  its  history,  and  which,  in  beauty 
and  sublimity  of  structure,  was  equalled  by  few, 
surpassed  by  none,  was  converted,  by  Somerset, 
after  it  had  been  stript  and  dilapidated,  into  a 
manufactory,  where  refugee  weavers,  chiefly 
French  and  Walloons,  were  to  set  up  their  trade ! 
He  had  obtained  it  from  the  Crown,  by  one  of 
those  exchanges,  which  were  little  less  advanta- 
geous than  a  grant.  One  of  the  Popes,  at  King 
Edgar's  desire,  had  taken  this  Monastery  "  into 
the  bosom  of  the  Roman  Church,  and  the  pro- 
tection of  the  holy  Apostles,"  and  denounced  a 
perpetual  curse  upon  any  one  who  should  usurp, 
diminish,  or  injure,  its  possessions.  The  good 
old  historian.  William  of  Malmsbury,  when  he 


w]        DESTRUCTION  OF  MANUSCRIPTS.  121 


recorded  this,  observed,  that  the  denunciation 
had  always,  till  his  time,  been  manifestly  fulfilled, 
seeing  no  person  had  ever  thus  trespassed  against 
it,  without  coming  to  disgrace  by  the  judgement 
of  God.  By  pious  Protestants,  as  well  as  Papists, 
the  Abbey  lands  were  believed  to  carry  with  them 
the  curse  which  their  first  donors  imprecated  upon 
all  who  should  divert  them  from  the  purpose  where- 
unto  they  were  consecrated :  and  in  no  instance 
was  this  opinion  more  accredited  than  in  that  of 
the  Protector  Somerset. 

The  destruction  of  manuscripts  was  such, 
that  Bale,  who  hated  the  Monasteries,  groaned 
over  it  as  a  shame  and  reproach  to  the  nation. 
Addressing  King  Edward  upon  the  subject,  he 
says,  "  I  judge  this  to  be  true,  and  utter  it  with 
heaviness,  that  neither  the  Britons,  under  the 
Romans  and  Saxons,  nor  yet  the  English  people, 
under  the  Danes  and  Normans,  had  ever  such 
damage  of  their  learned  monuments,  as  we  have 
seen  in  our  times.  Our  posterity  may  well  curse 
this  wicked  fact  of  our  age,  this  unreasonable 
spoil  of  England's  most  noble  antiquities."  "  As 
brokers  in  Long-lane,"  says  Fuller,  "  when  they 
buy  an  old  suit,  buy  the  linings  together  with  the 
outside  ;  so  it  was  conceived  meet,  that  such  as 
purchased  the  buildings  of  monasteries,  should 
in  the  same  grant  have  the  libraries  (the  stuffing 
thereof)  conveyed  unto  them  ;  and  these  igno- 


122       OPPRESSION  OF  THE  TENANTRY.  [chap. 


rant  owners,  so  long  as  they  misjht  keep  a  Lieger- 
book,  or  Terrier,  by  direction  thereof  to  find  such 
straggling  acres  as  belonged  to  them,  they  cared 
not  to  preserve  any  other  monuments."  They 
were  sold  to  grocers  and  chandlers ;  whole  ship- 
loads were  sent  abroad  to  the  bookbinders,  that 
the  vellum  or  parchment  might  be  cut  up  in  their 
trade.  Covers  were  torn  off  for  their  brass  bosses 
and  clasps ;  and  their  contents  served  the  igno- 
rant and  careless  for  waste  paper.  In  this  manner, 
English  history  sustained  irreparable  losses,  and 
it  is  more  than  probable  that  some  of  the  works 
of  the  ancients  perished  in  the  indiscriminate  and 
extensive  destruction. 

The  persons  into  whose  hands  the  Abbey-lands 
had  passed,  used  their  new  property  as  ill  as  they 
had  acquired  it.  The  tenants  were  compelled 
to  surrender  their  writings,  by  which  they  held 
estates,  for  two  or  three  lives,  at  an  easy  rent,  pay- 
able chiefly  in  produce;  the  rents  were  trebled 
and  quadrupled,  and  the  fines  raised  even  in  more 
enormous  proportion, ...  sometimes  even  twenty- 
fold.  Nothing  of  the  considerate  superintendence 
which  the  Monks  had  exercised, ..  .nothing  of  their 
liberal  hospitality,  was  experienced  from  these 
Step-Lords,  as  Latimer,  in  his  honest  indignation, 
denominated  them.  The  same  spirit  which  con- 
verted Glastonbury  into  a  woollen-manufactory, 
depopulated  whole  domains  for  the  purpose  of 


XIII.] 


INSURRECTIONS. 


123 


converting  them  into  sheep  farms;  the  tenants 
being  turned  out  to  beg,  or  rob,  or  starve.  To 
such  an  extent  was  this  inhuman  system  carried, 
that  a  manifest  decrease  of  population  appeared 
in  the  Muster-books,  which  in  those  ages  answer- 
ed, though  imperfectly,  the  purpose  of  a  census. 
The  most  forward  of  the  Reformers  did  their 
duty  manfully,  in  crying  aloud  against  this  iniqui- 
ty ;  and  truths  of  this  nature  were  never  proclaim- 
ed more  honestly  than  they  were  from  the  pulpit, 
in  the  presence  of  King  Edward,  and  of  the  very 
statesmen  who  were  most  deeply  implicated  in 
the  offence. 

Such  oppressions  drove  men  to  despair,  and 
produced  insurrections,  which,  by  those  who  look- 
ed far  off  for  causes  that  lay  close  at  hand,  were 
imputed  to  the  Sun  in  Cancer,  and  the  Midsum- 
mer Moon.  The  first  rising  was  in  Devonshire. 
It  broke  out  in  a  village,  on  the  day  when  the 
new  Liturgy  was  first  to  have  been  used  :  a  tai- 
lor and  a  common  labourer  declared,  for  the  pa- 
rishioners, that  they  would  keep  the  old  religion, 
as  their  forefathers  had  done  :  the  Priest,  whe- 
ther willingly  or  not,  performed  mass  in  obedi- 
ence to  their  demand  ;  and  owing  to  the  indecis- 
ion of  the  nearest  magistrates,  who,  when  they 
ought  to  have  restored  order  by  a  prompt  exer- 
tion of  authority,  parleyed,  hesitated,  and  did  no 
thing,  the  news  ran  from  one  place  to  another, 


124  WESTERN  INSURRECTION.  [chaf. 


and  the  country  was  presently  in  a  state  of  rebel- 
lion. The  poor  simple  people,  goaded  as  well  as 
guided  by  priests  of  the  old  religion,  who  were  as 
bigoted  as  themselves,  and  little  better  inform- 
ed, put  forth  their  demands  in  fifteen  articles, 
wherein,  so  curiously  were  they  misled,  not  one 
real  grievance  was  stated.  They  required,  that  all 
the  General  Councils  and  Decrees  should  be  ob- 
served, and  all  who  gainsayed  them  be  held  as 
heretics  ;  that  the  Six  Articles  should  be  enforced ; 
Mass  performed  in  Latin,  as  formerly,  and  no 
person  to  communicate  with  the  Priest ;  the  Sa- 
crament to  be  hung  over  the  high  altar,  and  there 
worshipped,  as  in  old  time,  and  all  who  would  not 
consent  to  this,  to  be  put  to  death  like  heretics ; 
the  Laity  to  communicate  only  at  Easter,  and  then 
but  in  one  kind;  baptism  to  be  administered  on 
week-days  as  well  as  holydays ;  images  set  up 
again,  and  old  ceremonies  restored ;  the  new  ser- 
vice to  be  suppressed,  because  it  was  but  like  a 
Christmas  game,  and  the  old  Latin  service  resum- 
ed,...the  Cornish  men,  they  said,  utterly  refusing 
to  use  English,  because  some  of  them  understood 
not  the  English  tongue;  the  souls  in  Purgatory 
to  be  prayed  for  by  every  preacher  in  his  ser- 
mon ;  the  English  Bible  to  be  prohibited,  and 
all  English  books  of  Scripture,  for  otherwise  the 
Clergy  would  not  "  of  long  time  confound  the 
heretics;"  and  half  the  Abbey  and  Chantry  lands 


xiii.]  WESTERN  INSURRECTION. 


125 


applied  to  pious  purposes.  The  other  demands 
■were,  that  Cardinal  Pole  should  be  pardoned, 
sent  for  from  Rome,  and  promoted  to  be  of  the 
King's  Council ;  that  two  Clergymen,  whom  they 
named,  should  be  beneficed,  and  sent  to  preach 
among  them ;  that  their  leaders,  Humphrey 
Arundel  and  the  Mayor  of  Bodmin,  should  have 
a  safe  conduct,  for  the  purpose  of  conferring  with 
the  King  concerning  the  special  grievances  of  their 
part  of  the  country  ;  and  that  no  gentleman  should 
have  more  than  one  servant,  unless  his  landed  es- 
tates enabled  him  to  spend  an  hundred  marks  a 
year;  for  every  hundred,  they  thought  it  reason- 
able he  should  have  a  man.  They  concluded  with 
a  protestation  of  loyalty:  "We  pray  God  save 
King  Edward,  for  we  be  his,  both  body  and 
goods." 

The  gentlemen  of  the  country  not  being  able 
to  make  head  against  the  insurgents,  Sir  John 
Russell,  Lord  Grey  of  Wilton,  and  Sir  William 
Herbert,  were  sent  with  a  force  both  of  horse 
and  foot,  among  whom  were  many  foreigners, 
Burgundian,  Italian,  and  Albanian ;  these  troops 
having  been  brought  over,  because  the  majority  of 
the  nation  were  attached  to  the  old  faith.  The 
King,  as  his  father  had  done  under  like  circum- 
stances, published  an  address  to  the  deluded  peo- 
ple, reasoning  with  them  upon  their  propositions, 
and  the  grounds  of  their  rnbellion.    With  regard 


126 


EDWARD  VI. 


[chap. 


to  baptism,  he  said,  they  might  reasonably  be  of- 
fended, if  by  his  laws  they  might  not  christen 
their  children,  when  they  were  disposed,  upon 
necessity,  any  day  or  hour  in  the  week.  ;  but 
they  were  falsely  deceived  in  this,  as  they  might 
see  by  looking  in  the  book  of  the  new  service. 
They  were  deceived,  also,  concerning  that  ser- 
vice, which,  though  represented  to  them  as  new, 
was,  indeed,  none  other  but  the  old,  the  self- 
same in  English  as  in  Latin,  "  saving  a  few  things 
taken  out,  so  fond,  that  it  had  been  a  shame 
to  have  heard  them  in  English.  The  difference 
is,  that  we  meant  you  our  subjects  should  under- 
stand in  our  natural  country  tongue,  that  which 
was  heretofore  spoken  in  Latin.  How  can  this 
with  reason  offend  any  reasonable  man  ?  If  the 
service  were  good  in  Latin,  it  remaineth  good  in 
English  :  for  nothing  is  altered,  but  to  speak  with 
knowledge,  what  before  was  spoken  with  igno- 
rance ;  and  to  let  you  understand  what  is  said 
for  you,  to  the  intent  you  may  further  it  with 
your  own  devotion;  an  alteration  to  the  better, 
except  knowledge  be  worse  than  ignorance." 
Touching  the  Six  Articles,  he  said,  "  Know  ye 
what  ye  require  ?  or  know  ye  what  ease  ye  have 
with  the  loss  of  them?  They  were  laws  made, 
but  quickly  repented.  Too  bloody  they  were  to 
be  borne  of  our  people;  yet  at  the  first,  indeed, 
made  of  some  necessity.    O  subjects,  how  are  ye 


xm.] 


EDWARD  VI. 


127 


trapped  by  evil  persons!  We,  of  pity,  because 
they  were  bloody,  took  them  away ;  and  you  now, 
of  ignorance,  will  ask  them  again !  .  .  .Since  our 
mercy  moved  us  to  write  our  laws  with  milk  and 
equity,  how  are  ye  blinded  to  ask  them  in  blood  1" 
Cranmer  also  wrote  a  calm  and  able  answer  to 
the  fifteen  articles,  addressing  it  to  the  "  ignorant 
men  of  Devonshire  and  Cornwall,  who  asked  (he 
said)  they  knew  not  what."  He  informed  them 
what  the  Decrees  were  which  they  wished  to  be 
observed.  He  pointed  out  the  inconsistency  of 
objecting  to  the  English  service,  because  some  of 
the  Cornish  people  spoke  no  English ;  and  de- 
manding, therefore,  a  Latin  service,  which  none 
of  them  understood.  And  with  regard  to  the 
sumptuary  law  which  they  proposed,  he  explained 
its  absurdity  and  its  object :  its  absurdity  was, 
that,  under  its  operation,  the  gentry,  instead  of 
expending  their  incomes  hospitably  and  to  the 
general  good,  must,  of  necessity,  lay  up  in  their 
coffers  at  least  the  one  half;  but  the  intent  was, 
to  diminish  their  strength,  and  bring  them  under 
the  command  of  the  commonalty. 

The  kingdom,  was,  indeed,  at  that  time,  in 
danger  of  such  a  war  as  had  raged  in  Germany. 
The  landed  proprietors  had  wickedly  abused  their 
power;  it  seemed  almost  as  if  they  were  attempt- 
ing to  bring  their  tenantry  into  a  state  of  vassalage, 
as  abject  as  any  that  existed  on  the  Continent. 


128  WESTERN  INSURRECTION.  {mm. 

On  the  other  hand,  principles,  which  tended  to 
the  overthrow  of  all  order,  were  proclaimed,  and 
prophecies  (the  common  artifice  of  the  middle 
ages)  circulated  in  their  aid,  that  soon  there  should 
be  no  King  in  England ;  that  the  Nobles  and 
Gentry  should  be  destroyed  ;  and  the  Commons, 
beginning  at  the  South  and  North  Seas,  and  hold- 
ing a  parliament  in  commotion,  should  elect  four 
Governors  to  rule  the  realm.  The  avowal  of 
such  intentions  changed  the  character  of  the  con- 
test :  it  lay  no  longer  between  the  adherents  of 
the  old  religion  and  of  the  new ;  but  between 
men  who  fought  for  plunder,  and  those  whose 
property  was  at  stake.  The  insurgents  laid  siege 
to  Exeter  ;  the  majority  of  the  citizens  were 
Papists;  but  the  premature  boast,  that  silks  and 
velvets  were  to  be  measured  by  the  bow,  and 
horses  sent  home  laden  with  plate,  money,  and 
goods,  made  them  join  resolutely  in  the  defence. 
It  was  protracted  till  Lord  Russell,  by  help  of 
the  merchants,  was  enabled  to  raise  and  equip  a 
force  sufficient  for  meeting  the  insurgents ;  who 
were  finally  dispersed,  with  the  loss  of  some  4000 
killed. 

Had  it  not  been  for  the  levelling  principles 
which  the  insurgents  proclaimed,  this  insurrec- 
tion might  most  seriously  have  endangered  the 
Government;  for  the  peasantry  had  been  iniqui- 
tously  oppressed,  discontent  prevailed  over  the 


XIII. J 


EDWARD  VI. 


129 


whole  country,  and  the  Reformation  was  odious 
to  the  great  body  of  the  people,  both  from  their 
religious  persuasions,  and  from  a  belief  that  it 
was  the  cause  of  all  the  evils  to  which  it  had 
afforded  occasion.  The  King  was  at  war  both 
with  Scotland  and  France ;  and  insurrections  in 
Norfolk  and  in  the  North  followed  close  upon  that 
in  the  West.  There  was  more  difficulty  in  sup- 
pressing the  former,  because  some  of  the  towns- 
people in  Norwich  admitted  the  rebels,  and  took 
part  with  them  ;  but  they  were  finally  defeated, 
and  punished  with  sufficient  severity.  It  is  to 
the  honour  of  the  Earl  of  Warwick,  of  whom  lit- 
tle good  is  recorded,  that  when  the  higher  orders, 
who  had  suffered  cruelly  during  the  insurrection, 
called  for  farther  executions,  he  resisted  their  de- 
sire of  vengeance,  and  would  allow  none  to  be 
put  to  death  who  had  accepted  the  mercy  which 
he  promised  them  in  the  King's  name. 

The  rise  of  Warwick,  then  made  Duke  of  Nor- 
thumberland, upon  the  overthrow  of  the  Protec- 
tor Somerset,  produced  no  change  in  the  system 
of  government  concerning  religion.  That  was 
a  subject  upon  which  Northumberland  neither 
thought  nor  cared.  He  encouraged  a  set  of  pro- 
fligate followers  of  the  Court  to  scoff  at  religion, 
and  made  sacred  things  the  object  of  their  buf- 
foonery ;  and  he  appropriated  to  himself  or  his 
favourites,  what  had  hitherto  escaped  plunder. 

vol.  n.  9 


130 


NORTHUMBERLAND 


[chat. 


without  any  of  the  forms  which  Somerset,  and 
even  Henry,  had  thought  necessary.  Cranmer 
and  Ridley  incurred  his  displeasure  for  resisting 
this ;  even  their  remonstrances,  which  were  deli- 
vered always  mildly  and  discreetly,  as  well  as 
faithfully,  could  not  be  borne  without  resentment  ; 
much  less,  the  bitter  and  indignant  language  of 
Latimer,  Lever,  Bradford,  and  John  Knox,  who 
was  then  exercising  in  England  those  talents  by 
which  he  afterwards  violently  overthrew  the  Ro- 
mish establishment  in  his  own  country. 

If  the  conduct  of  those  statesmen,  who  made 
use  of  the  Reformation  to  aggrandize  themselves, 
excited  grief  in  all  who  sincerely  desired  the  ad- 
vancement of  religion  ;  the  discretion  with  which 
Cranmer  and  his  colleagues  proceeded,  in  all 
their  measures,  obtained  the  full  approbation  of 
the  foreign  Protestants.  Calvin  himself,  in  ac- 
cord with  Bullinger,  and  those  other  divines  by 
whom  the  Reformed  Churches  were  governed, 
devised  a  plan  for  bringing  those  Churches  to  a 
conformity  with  that  of  England;  restoring  Epis- 
copacy for  that  purpose,  and  uniting  them  in  one 
body,  under  the  King  of  England  as  their  Defen- 
der. It  has  been  asserted,  that,  in  consequence 
of  the  alarm  which  the  Papal  Court  conceived  at 
this  project,  emissaries  were  sent,  by  its  agents 
at  the  Council  of  Trent,  to  England,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  propagating  the  wildest  and  most  dan- 


EDWARD  VI. 


131 


gerous  opinions,  thus  to  divide  the  Church'  of 
England,  and  bring  disgrace  upon  it  :  and  that 
the  actors  in  this  stratagem  might  play  their  part 
in  safety,  two  Catholic  Bishops,  of  whom  Gar- 
diner was  one,  were  apprized  of  the  scheme,  that 
they  might  protect  them  in  case  of  need.  Simi- 
lar stratagems  have  often  been  supposed,  and 
strong  evidence  sometimes  adduced  to  prove  that 
they  have  actually  been  practised;  yet  in  most 
cases  they  may  reasonably  be  doubted,  because 
in  every  case  they  have  been  unnecessary ;  nor 
was  the  Roman  Court  so  inexpert,  or  so  little 
acquainted  with  human  nature,  that  it  should  ex- 
ert itself  to  bring  about,  by  politic  arts,  what  rash- 
ness and  enthusiasm  would  too  certainly  do  without 
its  interference. 

The  inhuman  execution  of  many  Dutch  and 
German  Anabaptists,  in  the  preceding  reign, 
seems  to  have  deterred  others  from  following 
them.  But  opinions  of  the  same  character,  and 
of  home  growth,  were  disseminated  in  discourse, 
and  even  by  the  press,  such  as  that  the  elect  had 
a  right  to  take  whatever  their  necessities  re- 
quired ;  and  that  though  the  outward  man  might 
sin,  the  inward  remained  impeccable.  Several 
persons  recanted  these  doctrines,  and  bore  fag- 
gots, ...  for  no  voice  had  yet  been  raised  against 
the  atrocious  persuasion,  that  death  was  the  just 
punishment  for  heresv,  and  burning  the  appro- 
9 


132 


JOAN  BOCHEK. 


[our. 


priate  mode  of  execution.  There  was  some  also 
who  abjured  Arian  and  Socinian  opinions ;  but 
for  the  former,  a  Dutchman  suffered  at  the  stake. 
There  was  one  more  remarkable  victim  during 
this  reign,  Joan  Bocher,  a  Kentish  woman,  of 
good  education,  and  therefore  of  good  birth,  and 
of  respectable  rank  in  life,  for  she  had  frequented 
the  Court,  and  had  been  intimate  with  Anne  As- 
cue.  In  an  evil  hour  was  she  accused  of  main- 
taining a  fantastic  and  long-forgotten  notion  con- 
cerning our  Saviour,  that,  though  born  of  the  Vir- 
gin, he  partook  of  humanity  only  in  appearance, 
having  but  an  apparent,  and  not  a  real,  body. 
And  for  this  she  was  condemned  to  die  !  "  It  is 
a  goodly  matter  to  consider  your  ignorance !" 
said  the  undaunted  woman,  to  those  who  sate  in 
judgement  on  her.  "  Not  long  ago  you  burnt 
Anne  Ascue  for  a  piece  of  bread,  and  yet  came 
yourselves  soon  after  to  believe  and  profess  the 
same  doctrine,  for  which  you  burnt  her !  And 
now,  forsooth,  you  will  needs  burn  me  for  a  piece 
of  flesh, ...  and  in  the  end  you  will  come  to  be- 
lieve this  also,  when  ye  have  read  the  Scriptures, 
and  understand  them  !"  This  was  a  speech  which, 
notwithstanding  the  error  it  contained,  ought  to 
have  stricken  Cranmer  with  compunction.  When 
it  was  found  that  no  reasoning  could  shake  her 
confidence  in  this  groundless  opinion,  the  Council 
called  upon  Cranmer  to  obtain  a  warrant  for  her 


XIII. J 


EDWARD  VI. 


133 


execution.  It  is  the  saddest  passage  in  Cranmer's 
life;...  the  only  one  for  which  no  palliation  can 
be  offered  . . .  for  if  he  had  not  assented  to  it,  and 
even  constrained  the  young  King  to  sign  the  fatal 
order,  this  crime  might  have  been  averted.  There 
is  not  a  more  painful  and  humiliating  circum- 
stance in  our  history.  Edward  had  been  blessed 
with  a  tender  heart,  and  the  tendency  of  his  edu- 
cation had  been  to  cultivate  the  best  feelings,  and 
strengthen  them  by  the  purest  principles.  This 
act,  which  he  was  called  upon  to  sanction  by  his 
warrant,  appeared,  to  his  uncorrupted  judge- 
ment, in  its  true  light ;  and  it  was  not  without  re- 
monstrance and  tears  that,  in  deference  to  Cran- 
mer's  character  and  station,  he  signed  the  war- 
rant, telling  him  he  must  answer  for  it  before 
God !  Edward  had  not  then  completed  his  four- 
teenth year,  and  yet  so  much  did  he  excel  the 
best  and  wisest  of  his  counsellors  in  the  wisdom 
of  the  heart. 

There  is  another  beautiful  anecdote  of  this  ex- 
cellent Prince,  who,  of  all  men  that  history  has 
recorded,  seems,  in  moral  feeling,  to  have  ad- 
vanced the  farthest  beyond  his  age.  Ridley  had 
preached  before  him,  and  with  that  faithfulness 
which  his  preachers  were  encouraged  to  use, 
dwelt  upon  the  pitiable  condition  of  the  poor, 
and  the  duty  of  those  who  were  in  authority  to 
provide  effectual  means  for  their  relief.    As  soon 


134 


EDWARD  VI. 


[chap. 


as  the  service  was  over,  the  King  sent  him  a 
message,  desiring  him  not  to  depart  till  he  had 
spoken  with  him :  and  calling  for  him  into  a  gal- 
lery where  no  other  person  was  present,  made 
him  there  sit  down,  and  be  covered,  and  gave  him 
hearty  thanks  for  his  sermon  and  his  exhortation 
concerning  the  poor.  "  My  Lord,"  said  he, 
"  ye  willed  such  as  are  in  authority  to  be  careful 
thereof,  and  to  devise  some  good  order  for  their 
relief;  wherein  I  think  you  mean  me,  for  1  am 
in  highest  place,  and  therefore  am  the  first  that 
must  make  answer  unto  God  for  my  negligence, 
if  I  should  not  be  careful  therein."  Declaring 
then  that  he  was  before  all  things  most  willing 
to  travail  that  way,  he  asked  Ridley  to  direct 
him  as  to  what  measures  might  best  be  taken. 
Ridley,  though  well  acquainted  with  the  King's 
virtuous  disposition,  was  nevertheless  surprised, 
as  well  as  affected,  by  the  earnestness  and  sincere 
desire  of  doing  his  duty,  which  he  now  expressed. 
He  advised  him  to  direct  letters  to  the  Lord 
Mayor,  requiring  him,  with  such  assistants  as  he 
should  think  meet,  to  consult  upon  the  matter. 
Edward  would  not  let  him  depart  till  the  letter 
wa6  written,  and  then  charged  him  to  deliver  it 
himself,  and  signify  his  special  request  and  ex- 
press commandment,  that  no  time  might  be  lost 
in  proposing  what  was  convenient,  and  apprizing 
him  of  their  proceedings.    The  work  was  zea- 


XIII.] 


EDWARD  VI. 


135 


lously  undertaken,  Ridley  himself  engaging  in  it ; 
and  the  result  was,  that,  by  their  advice,  he 
founded  Christ's  Hospital,  for  the  education  of 
poor  children;  St.  Thomas's  and  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's, for  the  relief  of  the  sick  ;  and  Bridewell, 
for  the  correction  and  amendment  of  the  vaga- 
bond and  lewd;  provision  also  being  made,  that 
the  decayed  housekeeper  should  receive  weekly 
parochial  relief.  The  King  endowed  these  hos- 
pitals, and  moreover  granted  a  license,  that  they 
might  take  in  mortmain  lands,  to  the  yearly  value 
of  4000  marks,  fixing  that  sum  himself,  and  insert- 
ing it  with  his  own  hand  when  he  signed  the  pa- 
tent, at  a  time  when  he  had  scarcely  strength  to 
guide  the  pen.  "  Lord  God,"  said  he,  "  I  yield 
thee  most  hearty  thanks,  that  thou  hast  given 
me  life  thus  long,  to  finish  this  work  to  the  glory 
of  thy  name  !"  That  innocent  and  most  exem- 
plary life  was  drawing  rapidly  to  its  close,  and 
in  a  few  days  he  rendered  up  his  spirit  to  his 
Creator,  praying  God  to  defend  the  realm  from 
Papistry. 


136 


CHAPTER  XIV. 


Q.UEEN  MART.     THE  PERSECUTION. 

An  attempt  was  made,  by  authority  of  King 
Edward's  will,  to  set  aside  both  his  sisters  from 
the  succession,  and  raise  Lady  Jane  Grey  to  the 
throne,  who  had  lately  been  married  to  one  of 
Northumberland's  sons.  This  was  Northumber- 
land's doing;  he  was  actuated  by  ambition,  and 
the  other  members  of  the  government  assented 
to  it,  believing,  like  the  late  young  King,  that 
it  was  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  Pro- 
testant faith.  Cranmer  opposed  the  measure, 
but  yielded  when  the  dying  Edward  told  him 
he  hoped  he  alone  would  not  stand  out,  and  be 
more  repugnant  to  his  will  than  all  the  rest  of 
the  Council  were.  Henry  VIII.  had  been  so  ac- 
customed to  have  laws  enacted  at  his  pleasure, 
that  he  seems  at  last  to  have  considered  his  plea- 
sure equivalent  to  law ;  and  had  accordingly  dis- 
posed of  the  succession  at  different  times,  and 
finally  by  his  last  testament.  His  conduct  served 
as  a  precedent  for  his  son.  But  the  principles  of 
succession  were  in  fact  well  ascertained  at  that 


CHAP.  XIV.] 


MARY 


137 


time,  and,  what,  was  of  more  consequence,  they 
were  established  in  public  opinion.  Nor  could 
the  intended  change  be  supported  on  the  ground 
of  religion,  for  popular  feeling  was  decidedly 
against  the  Reformation.  Queen  Mary  obtained 
possession  of  her  rightful  throne  without  the 
Joss  of  a  single  life,  so  completely  did  the  nation 
acknowledge  her  claim  ;  and  an  after  insurrection, 
rashly  planned,  and  worse  conducted,  served  only 
to  hasten  the  destruction  of  the  Lady  Jane  and 
her  husband.  Their  tragedy  may  well  be  omit- 
ted here,  as  belonging  rather  to  civil  than  eccle- 
siastical history, ..  .which,  during  this  for  ever 
execrable  reign,  has  too  many  of  its  own.  Yet 
of  the  Lady  Jane  it  may  be  said,  that,  being  in  all 
respects  worthy  of  an  earthly  crown,  it  almost 
seems  as  if  she  had  been  summoned  in  mercy  to 
a  heavenly  one,  lest  the  world  should  stain  a 
spirit,  which  no  circumstances  could  render  more 
fit  for  heaven. 

The  Suffolk  men  were  the  first  who  had  de- 
clared for  Queen  Mary  ;  the  Protestant  faith  had 
taken  root  among  them,  and  they  obtained  a  pro- 
mise from  her,  that  no  alteration  should  be  made 
in  the  religion  which  her  brother  had  established. 
But  if  any  person  may  be  excused  for  hating  the 
Reformation,  it  was  Mary.  She  regarded  it  as 
having  arisen  in  this  country  from  her  mother's 
wrongs,  as  having  aggravated  those  wrongs,  and 


138 


MARY. 


[chap. 


enabled  the  King  to  complete  an  iniquitous  and 
cruel  divorce.    It  had  exposed    her  to  inconve- 
nience, and  even  danger,  under  her  fathers  reign, 
to  vexation  and  restraint  under  her  brother;  and 
after  having  been  bastardized  in  consequence  of 
it,  and  again  restored  to  her  rights,  when  she 
ought  to  have  succeeded  peaceably  to  the  throne, 
an  attempt  had  been  made  to  deprive  her  of  the 
inheritance,  because  she  continued  to  profess  the 
Roman  Catholic  faith.    Her  understanding  was 
good,  and  had  been  cultivated  most  carefully : 
she  was  a  religious  woman,  according  to  the  faith 
which  she  had  imbibed ;  she  had  inherited  some- 
thing of  her  mother's  constitutional  melancholy, 
something  of  her  father's  immitigable  disposition  ; 
and  as  the  circumstances  of  her  life  hitherto  had 
tended  to  foster  the  former  propensity,  those  in 
which  she  now  found  herself  were  not  likely  to 
correct  the  latter.    Had  the  religion  of  the  coun- 
try been  settled,  she  might  have  proved  a  good 
and  beneficent,  as  well  as  conscientious,  queen. 
But  she  delivered  her  conscience  to  the  direction 
of  cruel  men  ;  and  believing  it  her  duty  to  act  up 
to  the  worst  principles  of  a  persecuting  Church, 
boasted  that  she  was  a  virgin  sent  by  God  to  nde 
and  tame  the  people  of  England. 

Had  there  been  any  moderation  in  her  coun- 
cils, the  object  of  restoring  Popery  might  have 
been  accomplished  ; ...  it  was  even  called  for  by 


xxv.j 


MARY. 


139 


the  general  voice,  so  indignant  was  the  nation  at 
the  havoc  which  had  been  committed,  and  now 
so  sensible  of  the  mischief  which  had  been  done. 
The  people  did  not  wait  till  the  laws  of  King 
Edward  were  repealed ;  the  Romish  doctrines 
were  preached,  and  in  some  places  the  Romish 
Clergy  took  possession  of  the  churches,  turned 
out  the  incumbents,  and  performed  mass  in  ju- 
bilant anticipation  of  their  approaching  triumph. 
What  course  the  new  Queen  would  pursue  had 
never  been  doubtful  ;  and  as  one  of  her  first  acts 
had  been  to  make  Gardiner  Chancellor,  it  was 
evident  that  a  fiery  persecution  was  at  hand. 
Many  who  were  obnoxious  withdrew  in  time, 
some  into  Scotland,  and  more  into  Switzerland, 
and  the  Protestant  parts  of  Germany.  Cranmer 
advised  others  to  fly ;  but  when  his  friends  en- 
treated him  to  preserve  himself  by  the  like  pre- 
caution, he  replied,  that  it  was  not  fitting  for  him 
to  desert  his  post.  So  constant,  indeed,  were 
those  Protestant  Clergy  who  remained,  with  the 
determination  of  bearing  their  testimony  to  the 
last,  that  when  Wyatt,  in  his  insurrection,  sent 
to  the  Marshalsea  prison,  to  set  the  gates  open, 
and  ask  these  Confessors  to  join  him,  and  assist 
him  with  their  counsel,  their  answer  was,  that 
they  had  been  committed  there  by  order,  and 
would  not  leave  the  prison,  unless  they  were  in 
like  manner  discharged.     Some  outrages  were 


140 


MARY. 


[chat. 


committed  by  insensate  zealots ;  a  dagger  was 
thrown  at  one  priest,  a  shot  fired  at  another. 
And  an  attempt  was  made  to  perform  a  miracle, 
after  the  Romish  manner,  by  delivering  speeches 
against  the  Queen's  intended  marriage  with  Philip 
of  Spain,  and  the  restoration  of  Popery,  ...  as  if 
they  had  been  uttered  by  a  spirit  in  the  wall.  It 
was  easily  detected,  and  the  girl,  who  had  played 
the  invisible  angel,  was  brought  upon  a  scaffold 
at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  and  made  to  confess  the  im- 
posture. But  the  conduct  of  the  Protestants,  as 
a  body,  was  worthy  of  their  cause. 

The  Queen  at  first  inhibited  all  preaching  or 
printing  upon  religious  subjects ;  she  could  not, 
she  said,  hide  that  religion  which  God  and  the 
world  knew  she  had  ever  from  her  infancy  pro- 
fessed, and  she  much  desired  and  would  be  glad 
the  same  were  of  all  her  subjects  quietly  and 
charitably  embraced.  Yet,  of  her  most  gracious 
disposition  and  clemency,  she  intended  not  to 
compel  any  of  them  thereunto,  until  such  time 
as  farther  order,  by  common  consent,  might  be 
taken  therein ;  and  she  commanded  them,  mean- 
time, to  live  together  in  Christian  charity,  and 
abstain  from  the  new-found  devilish  terms  of 
Papist  or  Heretic,  and  such  like.  In  the  same 
deceitful  spirit,  Cardinal  Pole,  when  he  arrived  as 
Legate,  protested  that  his  commission  was  not  to 
prejudice  any  person,  for  he  came  to  reconcile. 


XIV. j 


JOHN  ROGERS. 


141 


and  not  to  condemn  :  not  to  compel,  but  to  call 
again  :  he  came  not  to  call  in  question  any 
thing  already  done,  but  his  commission  wa&  of 
grace  and  clemency  to  all  such  as  would  receive 
it;  "for,  touching  all  matters  past  and  done, 
they  should  be  cast  into  the  sea  of  forgetfulness." 
The  fears  of  that  class  of  men,  whose  opposition 
was  most  to  be  dreaded,  because  it  proceeded 
from  worldly  motives,  were  indeed  quieted  by  a 
Bull,  which  allowed  the  holders  of  abbey  lands 
to  retain  their  ill-gotten  possessions.  And  it 
should  not  be  forgotten,  in  honour  to  this  Queen, 
of  whom  so  much  evil  is  recorded,  that  she  vo- 
luntarily restored  to  the  Church  all  sueh  lands  as 
had  been  vested  in  the  Crown,  and  had  not  yet 
been  squandered. 

The  Protestant  Bishops  were  soon  dispossessed 
of  their  sees;  the  marriages  which  the  Clergy 
and  Religioners  had  contracted,  were  declared 
unlawful,  and  their  children  bastardized.  The 
heads  of  the  reformed  Clergy,  having  been  brought 
forth  to  hold  disputations  for  the  purpose  rather 
of  intimidating  than  of  convincing  them,  had 
been  committed  to  different  prisons,  and  after 
these  preparatories  the  fiery  process  began.  John 
Rogers,  the  protomartyr  in  the  Marian  persecu- 
tion, and  at  that  time  a  Prebendary  of  St.  Paul's, 
had  formerly  been  Chaplain  to  the  English  mer- 
chants at  Antwerp,  and  had  there  been  a  fellow- 


142 


JOHN  ROGERS. 


[chap. 


labourer  with  Tindal  and  Coverdale,  in  the  great 
work  of  translating  the  Bible.  He  had  a  large 
family,  and  having  married  a  German  woman, 
might  have  found  means  to  support  tbem  in  her 
country  ;  but  deeming  it  the  duty  of  himself  and 
his  brethren,  he  said,  to  stand  like  true  soldiers 
by  the  Captain  of  their  salvation,  and  not  trai- 
torously run  out  of  his  tents,  or  out  of  the  plain 
field  from  him,  in  the  most  jeopardy  of  the  battle 
...  he  chose  to  abide  the  worst ;  and,  in  his  last 
sermon  at  St.  Paul's  Cross,  exhorted  the  people 
to  remain  in  such  true  doctrine  as  had  been 
taught  in  King  Edward's  day,  and  to  beware  of 
all  pestilent  Popery,  idolatry,  and  superstition. 
After  long  imprisonment  and  several  examina- 
tions, he  was  condemned,  for  maintaining  that 
the  Church  of  Rome  was  the  church  of  Antichrist, 
and  for  denying  transubstantialion.  The  sentence 
being  passed,  he  requested  that  his  poor  wife, 
being  a  foreigner,  might  come  and  speak  with 
him  as  long  as  he  lived;  "for  she  hath  ten  chil- 
dren," said  he,  "  that  are  hers  and  mine,  and 
somewhat  I  would  counsel  her  what  were  best 
for  her  to  do."  But  Gardiner,  with  his  charac- 
teristic brutality,  refused  this,  affirming  that  she 
was  not  his  wife.  And  when,  on  the  day  of  his 
execution,  he  asked  Bonner,  that  he  might  speak 
to  her,  a  few  words  only,  before  his  burning, 
that  monster  would  not  permit  it.    She  met  him. 


XIV.] 


LAURENCE  SAUNDERS. 


143 


however,  with  her  ten  children,  one  hanging  on  the 
breast,  as  he  went  to  Smithfield.  That  sight  did 
not  abate  the  cheerfulness  of  his  courage  ;  a  par- 
don was  offered  him  at  the  stake,  if  he  would  re- 
cant ;  he  steadily  refused  it,  and  washing  his  hands 
in  the  flames  as  they  blazed  about  him,  took  his 
death  with  so  calm  and  resolute  a  patience,  that 
many  who  were  present  blessed  God  for  the  sup- 
port which  had  been  vouchsafed  him,  and  derived 
strength  from  his  example. 

The  second  martyr,  Laurence  Saunders,  had 
been  educated  first  at  Eton,  afterwards  at  King's 
College ;  but  when  he  had  continued  at  Cam- 
bridge three  years,  his  mother,  who  was  left  a 
widow  in  good  circumstances,  meaning  "  to  set 
him  up  wealthily,"  (and  perceiving,  perhaps,  how 
dangerous  the  path  of  letters  had  become,)  called 
him  from  his  studies,  and  apprenticed  him  to  Sir 
William  Chester,  who  happened  to  be  Sheriff 
of  London  at  the  time  of  his  martyrdom.  Sir 
William  was  a  good  and  liberal  man,  and  per- 
ceiving that  the  youth  was  made  unhappy  by  his 
change  of  life,  gave  up  his  indentures,  and  pre- 
vailed upon  the  mother  to  let  him  return  to  his 
beloved  pursuits.  In  Edward's  reign,  he  mar- 
ried, and  obtained  preferment ;  now,  when  the 
persecution  began,  he  was  soon  selected  as  a  vic- 
tim, and  brought  before  Bonner,  who  had  re- 
placed Ridley  in  the  See  of  London.  Bonner 


144  LAURENCE  SAUNDERS. 


desired  him  to  write  his  opinion  concerning  tran- 
substantiation :  he  obeyed  without  hesitation,  say- 
ing, as  lie  del ii  ered  the  writing,  "  My  Lord,  ye  do 
seek  my  blood,  and  ye  shall  have  it.  I  prav  God, 
that  ye  may  be  so  baptized  in  it,  that  ye  may 
thereafter  loath  bloodsucking,  and  become  a  better 
man."  When  he  spoke  of  his  conscience,  Bonner 
exclaimed,  "A  goodly  conscience  tiuly:  it  would 
make  our  Queen  a  bastard,  would  it  not,  1  pray 
you  ?"  Saunders  replied,  "  We  go  about  no  such 
matter.  Let  them  care  for  that,  whose  writings 
are  yet  in  the  hands  of  men,  witnessing  the  ^ame, 
not  without  the  great  reproach  and  shame  of  the 
authors."  For  Bonner  had,  in  Henry's  reign,  writ- 
ten and  printed  a  book,  wherein  he  declared  the 
marriage  with  Catharine  unlavi  ful,  and  the  Prin- 
cess Mary  illegitimate.  This  retort  touched  him, 
and  he  immediately  said,  "  Carry  away  this  frenzy 
fool  to  prison  !" 

While  Saunders  lived  in  expectation  of  being 
thus  apprehended,  he  was  disquieted,  and  he  said, 
to  a  friend  who  observed  this,  "In  very  deed,  I 
am  in  prison  till  1  be  in  prison."  Having  been 
seized,  he  knew  that  the  die  was  cast  for  death: 
from  that  moment,  all  perturbation  ceased  ;  and, 
by  a  curious  effect  of  the  mind  upon  the  body, 
the  emotion  which  he  felt  during  his  first  exami- 
nation was  rendered  purely  pleasurable  :  he  de- 
scribed it,  to  a  fellow-prisoner,  as  a  sense  of  re- 


XIV. J 


LAURENCE  SAUNDERS. 


145 


freshment  issuing  from  every  part  and  member  to- 
wards the  heart,  and  from  thence  ebbing  and  flow- 
ing to  and  fro;  and  he  believed  it  to  be,  "  a  cer- 
tain taste  of  the  Communion  of  Saints,  wonderful- 
ly comforting  him,  not  only  in  spirit,  but  in  body 
also."  He  charged  his  wife,  that  she  should  make 
no  suit  for  him,  and  assured  her  of  his  cheerful 
constancy,  thanks  to  his  God  and  his  Christ,  "  in 
whom,  and  through  whom,  I  shall,  (said  he,)  I 
know,  be  able  to  fight  a  good  fight,  and  finish  a 
good  course,  and  then  receive  the  crown  which  is 
laid  up  in  store  for  me  and  all  the  true  soldiers  of 
Christ !"  "  Thank  you  know  whom,  (he  continu- 
ed,) for  her  most  sweet  and  comfortable  putting 
me  in  remembrance  of  my  journey  whither  I  am 
passing.  God  send  us  all  good  speed,  and  a  joyful 
meeting.  I  have  too  few  such  friends  to  further 
me  in  that  journey,  which  is,  indeed,  the  greatest 
friendship." 

The  keeper  of  the  Marshalsea  prison  had  been 
ordered  to  let  no  person  visit  him.  His  wife, 
therefore,  when  she  came  to  the  prison-gate,  with 
her  intant  in  her  arms,  was  refused  admittance ; 
but  the  keeper,  with  more  humanity  than  was 
usual  in  men  of  his  vocation,  carried  the  infant 
to  his  father.  They  who  were  present  admired 
the  child ;  upon  which  Saunders  exclaimed, 
"  What  man,  fearing  God,  would  not  rather  lose 
this  present  life,  rather  than,  by   prolonging  it. 

vol.  11.  10 


146  LAURENCE  SAUNDERS. 


[chap. 


adjudge  this  boy  to  be  a  bastard,  his  wife  a 
whore,  and  himself  a  whoremonger  ?  Yea,  if 
there  were  no  other  cause  for  which  a  man  of 
my  estate  should  lose  his  life,  yet  who  would  not 
give  it,  to  avouch  this  child  to  be  legitimate,  and 
his  marriage  to  be  lawful  and  holy !"  This  burst 
of  feeling  may  explain,  why  it  was  that,  during 
this  persecution,  the  married  Clergy  were  observ- 
ed to  suffer  with  most  alacrity.  They  were  bear- 
ing testimony  to  the  validity  and  sanctify  of  their 
marriage,  against  the  foul  and  unchristian  asper- 
sions of  the  Romish  persecutors  ;  the  honour  of 
their  wives  and  children  was  at  stake  ;  the  desire 
of  leaving  them  an  unsullied  name  and  a  virtuous 
example,  combined  with  the  sense  of  religious  du- 
ty; and  thus  the  heart  derived  strength  from  the 
very  ties  which,  in  other  circumstances,  might  have 
weakened  it. 

When  Saunders  had  been  kept  fifteen  months 
in  prison,  (for  he  had  been  committed  at  the 
commencement  of  this  bloody  reign,)  he  was 
brought  before  the  Council,  where  Gardiner  told 
him,  it  was  now  thought  good  that  mercy  should 
be  shown  to  such  as  would  seek  it.  "  We  have 
fallen  in  manner  all,"  said  he,  ;'  but  now  we  be 
risen  again,  and  returned  to  the  Catholic  Church; 
you  must  rise  with  us,  and  come  home  unto  it. 
Leave  off"  your  painting  and  pride  of  speech ;  for 
such  is  the  fashion  of  you  all,  to  please  your- 


XIV.] 


LAWRENCE  SAUNDERS. 


147 


selves  in  your  glorious  words.  Answer,  . . .  yea  or 
nay !"  "  My  Lord,"  replied  the  martyr,  "  it  is 
no  time  for  me  to  paint ;  and  as  for  pride,  there 
is  no  great  cause  why  it  should  be  in  me.  My 
learning,  I  confess  to  be  but  small  ;  and  as  for 
riches  or  worldly  wealth,  I  have  none.  But  it 
standeth  me  to  answer  circumspectly,  consider- 
ing that  one  of  these  two  extreme  perils  are  like 
to  fall  upon  me,  the  losing  of  a  good  conscience,  or 
of  this  my  body  and  life.  And  I  tell  you  truth,  I 
love  both  life  and  liberty,  if  I  could  enjoy  them 
without  the  hurt  of  my  conscience." 

"Conscience!"  replied  Gardiner,  "you  have 
none  at  all,  but  pride  and  arrogancy ;  dividing 
yourselves,  by  singularity,  from  the  Church." 
Upon  this,  Saunders  made  answer,  "  The  Lord 
is  the  knower  of  all  men's  consciences.  But  for 
dividing  myself  from  the  Church,  I  live  in  the 
faith  wherein  I  have  been  brought  up,  since  I 
was  fourteen  years  old ;  being  taught,  that  the 
power  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome  is  but  usurped, 
with  many  other  abuses  springing  thereof.  Yea, 
this  I  have  received,  even  at  your  hands  that  are 
here  present,  as  a  thing  agreed  upon  by  the 
Catholic  Church  and  public  authority."  Bonner 
then  interfered,  saying,  "  I  have  his  hand  against 
the  blessed  Sacrament.  How  say  you  to  that  ?" 
He  replied,  "  What  I  have  written,  I  have 
written ;  and  further  I  will  not  accuse  myself. 
10 


148 


LAWRENCE  SAUNDERS. 


[chap. 


But  I  beseech  your  honours,  to  be  means  to  the 
Queen's  Majesty,  for  such  a  pardon  for  us,  that 
we  may  live,  and  keep  our  consciences  unclogged, 
and  we  shall  live  as  most  obedient  subjects. 
Otherwise,  for  myself,  1  must  say,  that,  by  God's 
grace,  1  will  abide  the  most  extremity  that  man 
may  do  against  me."  "Ah,  sirrah,"  cried  Gardi- 
ner, "  you  would  live  as  you  list !  The  Donatists 
desired  to  live  in  singularity,  but  they  were  not 
meet  to  live  on  earth:  no  more  be  you  ;  and  that 
shall  you  understand  within  these  seven  days  ;  . .  . 
therefore  away  with  him  !" 

Being  thus  assured  of  speedy  death,  he  wrote 
to  his  wife,  saying,  he  was  shortly  to  be  des- 
patched to  Christ,  and  desiring  her  to  send  him 
a  shirt,  "  which  (said  he,)  you  know  whereunto 
it  is  consecrated.  Let  it  be  sewed  down  on  both 
sides,  and  not  open.  O  my  heavenly  Father, 
look  upon  me  in  the  face  of  thy  Christ,  or  else  I 
shall  not  be  able  to  abide  thy  countenance  !  He 
will  do  so,  and  therefore  I  will  not  be  afraid 
what  sin,  death,  and  hell,  can  do  against  me. 
O  wife,  always  remember  the  Lord  . . .  God  bless 
you!  Yea,  He  will  bless  thee,  good  wife,  and  thy 
poor  boy  also.  Only  cleave  thou  unto  Him,  and 
He  will  give  thee  all  things."  The  crimes  of  those 
miserable  days  called  forth  virtues  equal  to  the 
occasion.  A  wife,  who  prepared  the  garment  in 
which  her  husband  was  to  suffer  at  the  stake. 


XIV.] 


HOOPER. 


149 


must  indeed  have  been  a  true  helpmate,  and  one 
who  possessed  a  heart  which  could  feel  and  un- 
derstand how  much  his  fortitude  would  be  con- 
firmed and  comforted  by  a  reliance  upon  hers. 

This  excellent  martyr  was  sent  to  Coventry 
for  execution,  because  he  had  held  preferment 
in  the  cathedral  of  that  diocese  ;  and  because  the 
Queen's  counsellors,  as  impolitic  as  they  were 
inhuman,  thought  to  strike  terror  throughout  the 
kingdom,  by  exhibiting  every  where  these  terrible 
examples.  With  this  view  Hooper  was  ordered 
to  Gloucester,  there  to  sutFer  on  the  day  after 
Saunders  had  borne  his  testimony  in  the  flames. 
Hooper,  when  Bishop  of  that  See,  had  held 
Worcester  in  commendam.  Promotion  had  wrought 
no  change  in  this  austere  and  conscientious  pre- 
late, "  who,  being  bishop  of  two  dioceses,"  says 
Fox,  "so  ruled  and  guided  either  of  them,  and 
both  together,  as  though  he  had  no  charge  but 
one  family.  No  father  in  his  household,  no 
gardener  in  his  garden,  no  husbandman  in  his 
vineyard,  was  more  employed  than  he  in  his 
diocese  among  his  flock,  going  about  the  towns 
and  villages,  teaching  and  preaching  to  the 
people  there."  His  custom  had  been,  every  day 
to  entertain  a  certain  number  of  the  poor  in  his 
common  hall :  he  or  his  chaplain  examined  them 
first  in  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Ten  Command- 
ments, and  the  articles  of  their  belief;  "  they 


150 


HOOPER. 


[chap. 


were  then  served  by  four  at  a  mess  with  whole 
and  wholesome  meats  ;"  and  it  was  not  till  after 
they  were  served  that  he  himself  sat  down  to 
dinner. 

Hooper  had  looked  on  to  martyrdom  as  the 
probable  termination  of  his  course.  When,  upon 
the  tidings  of  Edward's  accession,  he  left  his 
asylum  at  Zurich,  Bullinger,  who  had  been  his 
singular  friend  in  that  hospitable  city,  requested 
that  he  would  correspond  with  him.  He  pro- 
mised this  ;  but,  taking  him  earnestly  by  the  hand, 
added,  "  the  last  news  of  all  I  shall  not  be  able 
to  write  ;  for  there,  where  I  shall  take  most  pains, 
there  shall  you  hear  of  me  to  be  burnt  to  ashes.*' 
His  friends  urged  him  to  fly  while  he  could  yet 
escape ;  but  he,  judging,  and  rightly,  that  his  life 
would  profit  more  in  its  sacrifice  than  by  its 
preservation,  replied,  "  Once  1  did  flee,  and 
take  unto  my  feet ;  but  now,  being  called  to  this 
place  and  vocation,  I  am  thoroughly  persuaded 
to  tarry,  and  to  live  and  die  with  my  sheep." 
He  was  soon  arrested  and  brought  to  London, 
and  Gardiner's  first  question  to  him  was,  whether 
he  was  married  ?  "  Yea,  my  lord,"  answered 
Hooper,  "  and  will  not  be  unmarried,  till  death 
unmarry  me."  Tonstall,  contrary  to  his  usual 
benign  nature,  treated  him  with  indignity  upon 
this  point,  and  called  him  beast ;  and,  saying 
that  this   was  matter  enough  to  deprive  him. 


XIV.] 


HOOPER. 


151 


asked  him  the  more  deadly  question  concerning  the 
Sacrament,  to  which  he  answered  explicitly,  with- 
out hesitation.  He  was  then  committed  to  close 
prison  in  the  Fleet,  and  there  treated  with  such 
inhumanity,  that  the  disease,  which  ill  usage,  a 
damp  prison,  and  foul  air  produced,  had  nearly 
prevented  the  purpose  of  his  enemies.  The 
names  of  those  persons  who  relieved  him  there 
with  alms,  were  taken  by  the  jailer  to  Gardiner, 
to  bring  on  their  ruin. 

Hooper  and  Rogers  were  sometimes  brought 
up  together  for  examination;  and  as  they  passed 
through  the  streets  the  people  crowded  round 
them,  so  that  the  Sheriff  had  some  difficulty  to 
make  way  through  the  press.  The  persons  whom 
Gardiner  and  his  colleagues  had  selected  to  be 
their  first  victims,  were  all  men  whose  integrity 
and  holiness  of  life  commanded  respect  even 
from  those  who  differed  with  them  in  judgement ; 
their  preaching,  however  popular,  had  never  at 
any  time  been  so  efficacious  as  their  example  now  ; 
many,  therefore,  in  the  crowd  avowedly  rejoiced 
at  their  constancy.  And  when  they  were  con- 
ducted back  after  night  had  closed,  the  officers 
were  sent  before  to  put  out  the  costermonger's 
candles  (London  had  no  lamps  then,)  that  they 
might  pass  unseen,  and  thus  avoid  these  demon- 
strations of  good  will.  But  the  people  expect- 
ed their  coming,  and  many  came  out  of  their 


152 


HOOPER. 


[CHAF. 


doors  with  lights,  to  salute  and  encourage  them, 
and  pray  God   that  he    would  strengthen  them 
to  the  end.      The  Romanists  continually  spread 
reports   that   some    of  their  most  distinguished 
prisoners   had   acknowledged  their    errors  and 
abjured   them.     They  did   this  to  abate  the 
constancy  of  others,   knowing    what  consolation 
and  what  fortitude  each  of  these  Confessors  de- 
rived from  the    sympathy  and  example  of  his 
brethren.    The  prisoners,  however,  found  means 
of  communicating  even  when  at  a  distance ;  and 
Hooper,  who  had  not   been   reconciled  to  Rid- 
ley  since    the   dispute    concerning   the  habits 
at  his  consecration,  wrote  to  him  now,  prisoner 
to  prisoner,    as   his  dear    brother  and  reverend 
fellow-elder  in    Christ.     Ridley  replied   in  the 
same    Christian  temper:    "For  as  much,"  said 
he,   "as   we   thoroughly  agree  and  wholly  con- 
sent  together  in  those  things   which  are  the 
grounds   and    substantial  points  of   our  religion, 
against  the  which  the  world  so  furiously  rageth 
in  these  our  days,. .  .howsoever  in  times  past,  by 
certain  bye-matters  and  circumstances  of  religion, 
your  wisdom  and    my  simplicity  (I  grant)  hath 
jarred,  each  of  us  following  the  abundance  of  his 
own  sense  and  judgement . . .  now,  I  say,  be  you 
assured,  that  even  with  my  whole  heart,  God  is 
ray  witness,  I  love  you  in  the  Truth,  and  for  the 
Truth's  sake  which  abideth  in  us.  and  I  am  per- 


XIV.] 


HOOPER. 


J  53 


suaded  shall,  by  the  grace  of  God,  abide  in  us  for 
evermore." 

But  the  report  of  Hooper's  recantation  was 
spread  so  confidently,  that  many  of  the  Protes- 
tants believed  it, . .  .the  more  readily,  because 
Bonner  and  his  Chaplains  came  to  him  some- 
times, endeavouring  to  win  him  over.  As  soon 
as  he  understood  this  report,  he  wrote  a  letter, 
addressed  to  all  that  unfeignedly  looked  for  the 
coming  of  our  Saviour,  lamenting  in  this,  that  his 
dear  brethren,  who  have  not  yet,  said  he,  felt  such 
dangers  for  God's  truth  as  we  have,  and  do  feel, 
and  be  daily  like  to  suffer  more,  yea,  the  very  ex- 
treme and  vile  death  of  the  fire,  should  lightly  be- 
lieve that  he,  John  Hooper,  a  condemned  man  for 
the  cause  of  Christ,  should,  after  sentence  of  death, 
being  then  in  Newgate  prison,  and  looking  d^'Iv 
for  execution,  recant  and  abjure  that  which  there- 
tofore he  had  preached.  Had  he  refused  to  talk 
with  the  Bishop  of  London  and  his  Chaplains,  they 
might  have  just  occasion,  he  said,  to  say  he  was  un- 
learned, and  durst  not  speak  with  learned  men  ; 
or  else  that  he  was  proud,  and  disdained  to  speak 
with  them.  Therefore  he  always  spoke  with 
them  when  they  came,  not  fearing  their  arguments, 
but  being  more  confirmed  in  the  truths  which  he 
had  preached.  He  prayed,  therefore,  that  the 
weak  brethren  might  be  certified  of  the  truth,  and 
not  trouble  him  with  such  reports.     "  For  I  have 


154 


HOOPER. 


[chap. 


hitherto,"  said  he,  "  left  all  things  of  this  world, 
and  suffered  great  pains  and  imprisonment ;  and 
I  thank  God  I  am  as  ready  to  suffer  death  as  a 
mortal  man  may  be.  It  were  better  for  them 
to  pray  for  us,  than  to  credit  or  report  such  ru- 
mours. We  have  enow  of  such  as  know  not  God 
truly;  but  the  false  report  of  weak  brethren  is  a 
double  cross. .  .1  have  taught  the  truth  with  my 
tongue,  and  with  my  pen,  heretofore ;  and  here- 
after shortly  shall  confirm  the  same,  by  God's 
grace,  with  my  blood." 

Two  days  after  this  noble  letter  was  written, 
the  ceremony  of  degrading  was  performed  upon 
him  and  Rogers  together.  Rogers  was  led  to 
execution  ;  and  Hooper,  on  the  following  morn- 
ing, sent,  in  custody  of  six  of  the  Queen's  guards, 
to  Gloucester,  there  to  suffer.  He  rejoiced  at 
this,  "  praising  God  that  he  saw  it  good  to  send 
him  amongst  the  people  over  whom  he  was  pastor, 
there  to  confirm,  with  his  death,  the  truth  which 
he  had  before  taught  them  ;  not  doubting  but  that 
the  Lord  would  ^ive  him  strength  to  perform  the 
same  to  his  glory."  Sir  Anthony  Kingston,  one 
of  his  personal  friends,  was  one  of  the  persons 
appointed,  by  the  Queen's  letters,  to  see  execu- 
tion done  upon  him.  This  Knight,  as  soon  as  he 
saw  him,  burst  into  tears,  and  would  have  per- 
suaded him  to  preserve  his  life  by  submitting  to 
the  ruling  powers.    The  Bishop  meekly  answered. 


X1V.J 


HOOPER 


155 


"  I  am  come  hither  to  suffer  death,  because  I  will 
not  gainsay  the  truth,  that  I  have  heretofore  taught 
amongst  you ;  and  I  thank  you  for  your  friendly 
council,  although  it  be  not  so  friendly  as  1  could 
have  wished  it.  True  it  is,  Master  Kingston,  that 
death  is  bitter  and  life  is  sweet;  but  I  have  set- 
tled myself,  through  the  strength  of  God's  Holy 
Spirit,  patiently  to  pass  through  the  torments  and 
extremities  of  the  fire  now  prepared  for  me,  rather 
than  deny  the  truth  of  His  word;  desiring  you 
and  others,  in  the  mean  time,  to  commend  me  to 
God's  mercy  in  your  prayers."  Sir  Anthony  then 
perceiving,  as  he  said,  there  was  no  remedy,  took 
leave  of  him,  thanking  God  that  he  had  ever  known 
Hooper,  who  had  reclaimed  him  from  a  vicious 
and  adulterous  course  of  life.  Hooper  was  moved 
to  tears  at  his  departure,  and  declared,  that  all  the 
troubles  he  had  sustained  in  prison  had  not  caused 
him  to  utter  so  much  sorrow. 

When  he  was  delivered  by  the  guards  into  the 
Sheriff's  custody,  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen  sa- 
luted him  respectfully,  and  took  him  by  the  hand. 
The  Bishop  thanked  them  for  thus  acknowledging 
their  old  friendship  toward  one  who  was  now  a 
prisoner  and  condemned  man  ;  and  requested,  as 
the  only  favour,  that  there  might  be  a  quick  fire, 
shortly  to  make  an  end.  The  Sheriffs  would 
have  lodged  him,  for  that  night,  in  the  common 
gaol,  if  the  guards  had  not  interceded,  saying,  how 


156 


HOOPER. 


[chap. 


mildly  and  patiently  he  had  behaved  on  the  way, 
...  that  a  child  might  keep  him,...  and  that  they 
themselves,  though  now  discharged  of  their  com- 
mission, would  rather  watch  with  him,  than  that 
he  should  be  sent  to  the  common  prison.  He  was 
lodged,  therefore,  in  a  private  house ;  and,  retiring 
early  to  bed,  rose,  after  one  sound  sleep,  and  be- 
stowed the  rest  of  the  time  in  prayer,  requesting 
that  he  might  be  left  alone  till  the  hour  of  exe- 
cution. When  he  saw  a  company  of  men  with 
bills  and  other  weapons,  to  guard  the  place  of 
suffering,  he  observed  to  the  Sheriffs,  that  there 
had  been  no  need  of  them,  saying,  "If  ye  had 
willed  me,  I  would  have  gone  alone  to  the  stake, 
and  have  troubled  none  of  you."  It  was  a  market- 
day,  and  about  seven  thousand  persons  were  as- 
sembled. The  sight  of  the  multitude  made  him 
say  to  those  who  were  near  him,  "  Peradventure 
they  think  to  hear  something  from  me,  as  they 
have  in  times  past ;  but  alas,  speech  is  prohibited 
me  !  Notwithstanding,  the  cause  of  my  death  is 
well  known  unto  them.  When  I  was  their  pastor, 
I  preached  unto  them  true  and  sincere  doctrine, 
and  that  out  of  the  word  of  God.  Because  I  will 
not  now  account  the  same  to  be  heresy  and  un- 
truth, this  kind  of  death  is  prepared  for  me." 

"  So  he  went  forward,"  says  Fox,  "  led  be- 
tween the  two  Sheriffs,  (as  it  were  a  lamb  to  the 
place  of  slaughter.)  in  a  gown  of  his  host's,  his 


XIV.] 


UOOPEK. 


157 


hat  upon  his  head,  and  a  staff  in  his  hand  to  stay 
himself  withal ;  for  the  sciatica,  which  he  had 
taken  in  prison,  caused  him  somewhat  to  halt." 
He  had  been  ordered  not  to  speak ;  "  but  behold- 
ing the  people  all  the  way  which  mourned  bitterly 
for  him,  he  would  sometimes  lift  up  his  eyes  to- 
ward Heaven,  and  look  cheerfully  upon  such  as 
he  knew  ;  and  he  was  never  known,  during  the 
time  of  his  being  amongst  them,  to  look  with  so 
cheerful  and  ruddy  a  countenance  as  he  did  at 
that  present."  The  stake  had  been  made  ready 
near  a  great  elm  tree,  in  front  of  the  Cathedral 
where  he  was  wont  to  preach.  "  The  place  round 
about,  the  houses,  and  the  boughs  of  the  tree, 
were  replenished  with  people,  and  in  the  chamber 
over  the  College-gate  stood  the  Priests  of  the 
College."  While  he  was  on  his  knees  in  prayer, 
a  box  containing  his  pardon  was  brought  and  laid 
before  him;  at  the  sight  whereof,  he  twice  ex- 
claimed, "  If  you  love  my  soul,  away  with  it !" 
Lord  Chandos,  who  presided  at  this  abominable 
execution,  was  so  jealous  of  the  effect  which  what- 
ever came  from  Hooper's  lips  might  produce  upon 
the  people,  that  he  ordered  those  persons  to  a 
distance  who  were  intently  hearkening  to  his 
prayer;  not,  however,  till  they  had  heard  a  few 
sentences,  and  among  them  these  words  :  "  Well 
knowest  Thou,  Lord,  wherefore  I  am  come  hither 
to  suffer,  and  why  the  wicked  do  persecute  this 


158 


TAYLOR. 


[CHAf. 


thy  poor  servant ;  not  for  my  sins  and  transgres- 
sions committed  against  Thee,  but  because  I  will 
not  allow  their  wicked  doings,  to  the  denial  of  the 
knowledge  of  thy  truth,  wherewith  it  did  please 
Thee  by  thy  Holy  Spirit  to  instruct  me ;  the 
which,  with  as  much  diligence  as  a  poor  wretch 
could,  (being  thereto  called.)  I  have  set  forth  to 
thy  glory.  And  well  seest  Thou,  my  Lord  and 
God,  what  terrible  pains  and  cruel  torments  be 
prepared  for  thy  creature ;  such,  Lord,  as,  with- 
out thy  strength,  none  is  able  to  bear,  or  patiently 
to  pass.  But  all  things,  that  are  impossible  with 
man,  are  possible  with  Thee.  Therefore  strengthen 
me  of  thy  goodness,  that  in  the  fire  I  break  not  the 
rules  of  patience  ;  or  else  assuage  the  terror  of  the 
pains,  as  shall  seem  most  to  thy  glory." 

In  full  reliance  upon  the  support  for  which  he 
prayed,  when  they  fastened  his  neck  and  legs,  as 
well  as  his  body,  by  hoops  of  iron  to  the  stake, 
he  assured  them,  that  trouble  was  needless,  for 
God,  he  doubted  not,  would  give  him  strength  to 
abide  the  extremity  of  the  fire  without  bands. 
He  would  fain  not  have  taken  off  his  doublet  and 
hose,  but  the  Sheriffs  required  them ;  such,  says 
the  Martyrologist,  was  their  greediness  !...so  that 
he  remained  in  his  shirt ;  and  being  a  tall  man, 
and  raised  on  a  high  stool,  he  was  seen  by  all  the 
people  ;  and  in  the  sight  of  that  great  multitude, 
among  whom  few  hearts  remained  unmoved,  and 


TAYLOR. 


159 


fewer  eyes,  he,  as  he  had  prayed  that  he  might 
do,  patiently  endured  what  was  indeed  the  extre- 
mity of  the  fire  ;...f'or,  through  all  the  Marian  per- 
secution, there  was  no  other  so  lingering  a  mar- 
tyrdom. But  the  voice  with  which  he  called  upon 
his  Redeemer,  was  not  as  the  voice  of  one  impa- 
tient, or  overcome  with  pain :  he  remained  calm 
and  still  to  the  last,  without  a  struggle;  and  at 
length,  in  the  words  of  the  faithful  old  narrator, 
died  as  quietly  as  a  child  in  his  bed. 

On  the  same  day  that  Hooper  suffered  martyr- 
dom, Dr.  Rowland  Taylor  in  like  manner  bore 
his  testimony  to  the  same  cause,  at  Hadley  in 
Suffolk.  When  the  living  of  that  town  was  given 
him,  he  was  one  of  Cranmer's  household ;  but 
going  immediately  to  reside  there,  he  forwarded 
the  work  which  had  been  begun  by  Bilney's 
preaching,  and  brought  over  a  manufacturing 
population  to  a  proper  sense  of  religion,  and  to 
that  consequent  state  of  morals  and  manners, 
which  nothing  but  religion  can  produce.  It  had 
been  his  practice  to  visit  the  sick,  the  poor,  and 
the  needy,  to  comfort  them,  relieve  them,  and 
instruct  them  ;  and  he  called  regularly  upon  the 
rich  clothiers,  to  go  with  him  to  the  alms-houses, 
and  see  that  every  thing  was  duly  provided  there ; 
his  exhortations  and  example  making  them  con- 
tribute their  proper  part  to  these  works  of  charity. 
Some  zealous  Romanists,  with  a  few  armed  fol- 


160 


TAYLOR. 


[chap. 


lowers,  brought  a  neighbouring  Priest,  and  took 
forcible  possession  of  his  church,  when  the  old 
religion  was  restored.  Taylor,  as  the  shepherd 
appointed  to  feed  that  flock,  ordered  these  Popish 
wolves,  as  he  called  them,  to  depart :  upon  which 
they  turned  him  out  of  the  church,  closed  the 
doors  to  exclude  the  people,  who  were  zealous  in 
their  minister's  behalf,  performed  Mass,  and  then 
lodged  a  complaint  against  him  ;  upon  which  he 
was  summoned  before  Gardiner.  When  his 
friends  importuned  him  to  escape,  and  reminded 
him,  that  Christ  had  enjoined  his  disciples,  when 
they  were  persecuted  in  one  city,  to  flee  into 
another,  he  replied.  '•  I  am  old,  and  have  already 
lived  too  long,  to  see  these  terrible  and  most 
wicked  days.  Fly  you,  and  do  as  your  conscience 
leadeth  you  !  1  know  that  there  is  neither  justice 
nor  truth  to  be  looked  for  at  my  adversaries' 
hands ;  but  rather  imprisonment  and  cruel  death. 
Yet  know  I  my  cause  to  be  so  good  and  righte- 
ous, and  the  truth  so  strong  upon  my  side,  that 
I  will,  by  God's  grace,  go  and  appear  before  them, 
and  to  their  beards  resist  them.  God  will  here- 
after raise  up  teachers  to  his  people,  who  will 
with  more  diligence  and  fruit  teach  them  than  i 
have  done  :  He  will  not  forsake  his  Church, 
though  now  for  a  time  he  trieth  and  correcteth 
us,  and  not  without  just  cause.  As  for  me,  I  shall 
never  be  able  to  do  so  good  service,  nor  have  so 


xiv.J  TAYLOR.  1 | 1 

glorious  a  calling,  nor  so  great  mercy  of  God  pro- 
fered  me  as  at  this  present.  Wherefore,  I  be- 
seech you,  and  all  other  my  friends,  to  pray  for 
me ;  and  I  doubt  not  but  God  will  give  me  strength, 
and  his  Holy  Spirit,  that  all  mine  adversaries  shall 
have  shame  of  their  doings." 

Accordingly,  in  obedience  to  the  summons, 
he  set  out  for  London,  accompanied  by  a  faithful 
servant,  named  John  Hull,  who,  on  the  way,  en- 
treated him  to  fly,  offering  to  follow  him  any- 
where, and  in  all  perils  to  venture  his  life  for 
him  and  with  him.  But  his  determination  had 
been  made.  "  O,  John,"  he  said,  "remember 
the  good  shepherd,  Christ,  which  not  alone  fed 
his  flock,  but  also  died  for  it.  Him  must  I  fol- 
low ;  and,  with  God's  grace,  will  do.  Therefore, 
good  John,  pray  for  me ;  and  if  thou  seest  me 
weak  at  any  time,  comfort  me,  and  discourage 
me  not  in  this  my  godly  enterprise  and  pur- 
pose." When  he  presented  himself  before  Gar- 
diner, that  persecutor,  with  his  usual  brutality, 
called  him  knave,  traitor,  and  heretic,  and  ex- 
claimed, "  Art  thou  come,  thou  villain  ?  How 
darest  thou  look  me  in  the  face  for  shame  ? 
Knowest  thou  not  who  I  am?"  "Yes,"  quoth 
Taylor,  "ye  are  Dr.  Stephen  Gardiner,  Bishop 
of  Winchester  and  Lord  Chancellor,  .  .  .  and  yet 
but  a  mortal  man,  I  trow.  But  if  I  should  be 
afraid  of  your  lordly  looks,  why  fear  you  not  God, 

vol.  ii.  1 1 


162 


TAYLOR. 


[chap. 


the  Lord  of  us  all?  How  dare  ye,  for  shame,  look 
any  Christian  man  in  the  face,  seeing  ye  have  for- 
saken the  truth,  and  done  contrary  to  your  own 
oath  and  writing?  With  what  countenance  will 
ye  appear  before  the  judgement-seat  of  Christ, 
and  answer  to  your  oath,  made  first  unto  that 
blessed  King  Henry  VIII.,  of  famous  memory, 
and  afterward  unto  blessed  King  Edward,  his 
son?"  The  Bishop  answered,  that  was  Herod's 
oath,  he  had  done  well  in  breaking  it,  and  the 
Pope  had  discharged  him  of  it ;  and  when  the 
brave  Protestant  told  him,  no  man  could  assoil 
him  from  it,  and  that  Christ  would  require  it  at 
his  hands,  Gardiner  told  him,  he  was  an  arrogant 
knave  and  a  very  fool.  "  My  Lord,  (he  replied,) 
leave  your  unseemly  railing!  for  I  am  a  Christian 
man;  and  you  know,  he  that  sayeth  to  his  bro- 
ther, Raca,  shall  be  in  danger  of  the  Council : 
but  he  that  sayeth,  Thou  Fool,  is  in  danger  of 
hell-fire."  Presently  Gardiner  said  to  him,  "  Thou 
art  married."  He  replied,  "  I  thank  God  I  am, 
and  have  had  nine  children."  And  when  he  was 
charged  with  having  opposed  the  Priest  who  said 
Mass  in  his  Church,  he  answered,  "  My  Lord, 
I  am  Parson  of  Hadley,  and  it  is  against  all  right, 
conscience,  and  laws,  that  any  man  should  come 
into  my  charge,  and  presume  to  infect  the  flock 
committed  unto  me,  with  venom  of  the  Popish 
idolatrous  Mass." 


TAYLOR. 


163 


He  was  then  ordered  to  the  King's  Bench,  there 
to  be  straight  ly  kept.  At  this  time,  so  many  of 
the  best  and  ablest  men  in  England  were  com- 
mitted for  the  same  cause,  "  that  almost  all  the 
prisons  (says  Fox)  were  become  right  Chris- 
tian schools  and  churches ;  so  that  there  was  no 
greater  comfort  for  Christian  hearts  than  to  come 
to  the  prisons,  to  behold  their  virtuous  conver- 
sation, and  to  hear  their  prayers,  preachings, 
most  godly  exhortations,  and  consolations."  He 
found,  in  the  King's  Bench,  an  excellent  fellow- 
prisoner,  John  Bradford,  destined  to  the  same 
fate,  and  prepared,  with  the  same  courage,  to 
embrace  it.  Each  looked  upon  the  company  of 
the  other  as  an  especial  mercy  provided  for  him. 
Taylor  was  summoned  first,  but  not  till  he  had 
lain  nearly  two  years  in  prison.  When  the  mock- 
ery of  degrading  him  was  performed,  Bonner, 
who  officiated,  was  about  to  strike  him  on  the 
breast  with  the  crozier,  as  part  of  the  ceremony  ; 
but  one  of  the  Chaplains,  marking  Taylor's  coun- 
tenance, called  out  to  the  Bishop  not  to  strike, 
for  he  would  strike  again.  "  Yea,  by  St.  Peter, 
will  I!"  quoth  Taylor;  "the  cause  is  Christ's, 
and  I  were  no  good  Christian  if  I  would  not  fight 
in  my  master's  quarrel.".  . ."  By  my  troth,"  said 
he,  laughing  and  rubbing  his  hands,  when  he  relat- 
ed this  to  Bradford,  "  I  made  him  believe  I  would 
do  so  !" 

1 1 


164 


TAYLOR. 


[chap. 


During  this  persecution,  prisoners  were  treated 
much  more  humanely  in  the  King's,  than  in  the 
Bishops'  prisons ;  for  the  keepers  of  the  latter 
thought  to  recommend  themselves  by  a  display 
of  zeal,  in  the  rigour  with  which  they  treated 
those  who  were  committed  to  their  charge.  The 
night  after  his  degradation,  by  the  gaoler's  favour, 
his  wife,  with  one  of  his  sons,  and  the  faithful 
John  Hull,  were  permitted  to  sup  with  him.  In 
exhorting  the  hoy  to  a  virtuous  life,  he  bade  him 
remember,  that  his  father  died  in  the  defence  of 
holy  marriage.  He  charged  his  wife,  who,  he 
said,  had  been  a  faithful  yoke-fellow  to  him,  and 
would  now  soon  be  discharged  of  that  wedlock- 
bond,  to  marry  again,  as  soon  as  God  should  pro- 
vide her  an  honest  and  religious  man,  who  would 
be  a  merciful  father  to  her  poor  children.  For 
herself  and  them,  this,  he  said,  was  the  only  course 
that  could  bring  them  out  of  troubles  ;  and  he  be- 
queathed them  to  the  Almighty's  protection,  say- 
ing, that  he  was  going  to  those  of  his  children 
whom  God  had  taken  to  himself,  and  whom  he 
named, . . .  five  in  number. 

His  wife  suspected  that  he  would  be  removed 
that  night,  and  therefore,  when  she  left  the  prison, 
went,  with  one  of  her  daughters,  and  an  orphan 
girl,  whom  Dr.  Taylor  had  bred  up,  and  watched 
all  night  in  the  Church  porch  of  St.  Botolph's, 
beside  Aldgate,  by  which  she  knew  he  must  pass. 


XIV.] 


TAYLOR. 


165 


It  was  early  in  February :  at  two  in  the  morn- 
ing, one  of  the  Sheriffs,  (that  Sir  Wm.  Chester, 
to  whom  Saunders  had  been  indentured,)  a  hu- 
mane and  compassionate  man,  came  to  conduct 
him  to  an  inn  without  Aldgate,  where  the  Sheriff 
of  Essex  was  to  take  him  in  charge.  They  went 
without  lights ;  but  when  they  approached  the 
church,  the  orphan  heard  them  coming,  and  ex- 
claiming, "O  my  dear  lather!"  called  upon  her 
mother.  "  Rowland,  Rowland,"  said  the  wife, 
"  where  art  thou?'  For  it  was  so  dark,  that  they 
could  not  see  each  other.  He  answered  her,  and 
stopt :  the  men  would  have  hurried  him  on,  but 
the  Sheriff  desired  them  to  let  him  stay  awhile 
and  speak  to  his  wife.  Taylor  then  took  his 
daughter  in  his  arms,  and  kneeling  in  the  porch, 
with  his  wife  and  the  orphan  girl,  said  the  Lord's 
Prayer.  He  then  kissed  her,  and  shaking  her  by 
the  hand,  said,  "Farewell,  dear  wife!  be  of  good 
comfort,  for  I  am  quiet  in  my  conscience."  And 
blessing  the  children,  he  charged  them  to  stand 
strong  and  steadfast  unto  Christ,  and  keep  them- 
selves from  idolatry.  Then  said  his  wife,  M  God 
be  with  thee,  dear  Rowland ;  I  will,  with  God's 
grace,  meet  thee  at  Hadley."  She  followed  them 
to  the  inn;  but  the  Sheriff,  who  bad  wept  apace 
during  their  sad  interview,  would,  in  mercy,  al- 
allow  no  more  such  meetings.  He  entreated  her 
to  go  to  his  house,  and  use  it  as  her  own,  pro- 


166 


TAYLOR. 


raising  she  should  lack  nothing,  and  sent  two  offi- 
cers to  conduct  her  thither ;  but  at  her  request, 
she  was  taken  to  her  own  mother's,  who  was 
charged  to  keep  her  there. 

A  little  before  noon  the  Sheriff  of  Essex  ar- 
rived, Taylor  was  then  placed  on  horseback,  and 
brought  out  of  the  inn.  John  Hull  was  waiting 
without  the  gates  with  Taylor's  son :  Taylor 
called  the  child,  and  John  lifted  him  up,  and  set 
him  on  the  horse  before  his  father.  "  Good  peo- 
ple," said  he,  "  this  is  mine  own  son  begotten  in 
lawful  matrimony. . .  and  God  be  blessed  for  lawful 
matrimony."  He  then  prayed  for  the  boy,  laid  his 
hand  on  his  head,  and  blessed  him,  and  returned 
him  again  to  John,  whom  he  took  by  the  hand, 
saying,  "Farewell,  John  Hull,  the  faithfullest 
servant  that  ever  man  had !"  And  so  they  rode 
forth,  the  Sheriff  of  Essex,  with  four  yeomen  of 
the  guard  and  the  Sheriff's  men,  leading  him. 
When  they  came  to  Brentwood,  a  close  hood  was 
made  for  him,  with  holes  for  the  eyes  and  mouth, 
that  he  might  not  be  recognised  on  the  way.  They 
halted  for  the  night  at  Chelmsford,  where  the 
Sheriff  of  Suffolk  met  them.  The  other  Sheriff 
here,  while  they  were  at  supper,  entreated  him 
to  be  reconciled  to  the  church,  praising  him  for 
his  learning  and  good  report,  and  promising  that 
he  and  all  his  friends  would  be  suitors  for  him  to 
the  Queen.    Tavlor  knew  how  little  argument 


XIV.] 


TAYLOR 


167 


would  avail,  and  therefore  expressed  his  resolu- 
tion in  a  manner  characteristic  of  his  temper. 
"Mr.  Sheriff,"  said  he,  "and  my  masters  all,  1 
heartily  thank  you  for  your  good  will ;  1  have 
hearkened  to  your  words,  and  marked  well  your 
counsels ;  and,  to  be  plain  with  you,  1  do  per- 
ceive that  I  have  been  deceived  myself,  and  am 
likely  to  deceive  a  great  many  of  Hadley  of  their 
expectation."  With  that  word  they  all  rejoiced'. 
"  Yea,  good  master  Doctor,"  quoth  the  Sheriff, 
"  God's  blessing  on  your  heart ;  hold  you  thus 
still !  It  is  the  comfortablest  word  that  we  have 
heard  you  speak  yet.  What !  should  ye  cast  away 
yourself  in  vain  ?  Play  a  wise  man's  part  ;  and,  I 
dare  warrant  it,  ye  shall  find  favour."  "  Would  you 
know  my  meaning  plainly  ?"  said  Taylor  ;  "  then 
I  will  tell  you  how  I  have  been  deceived,  and,  as 
I  think,  shall  deceive  a  great  many.  I  am,  as  you 
see,  a  man  that  hath  a  very  great  carcass,  which 
I  thought  should  have  been  buried  in  Hadley 
church-yard,  if  I  had  died  in  my  bed,  as  I  well 
hoped  1  should  have  done.  And  thus  a  great  num- 
ber of  worms  in  Hadley  church-yard  should  have 
had  jolly  feeding  upon  this  carrion,  which  they 
have  looked  for  many  a  day.  But  now  1  know  we 
be  deceived,  both  I  and  they ;  for  this  carcass 
must  be  burnt  to  ashes,  and  so  shall  they  lose  their 
bait." 

When  they  entered  Suffolk  a  number  of  gentry, 


168 


TAYLOR. 


[chap. 


who  had  been  appointed  to  aid  the  Sheriff,  met 
them ;  they  assured  him  that  they  had  his  par- 
don ready,  and  promised  him  promotion  to  a  bish- 
opric, if  he  would  accept  it.  These  offers  were 
in  vain,  "for  he  had  not  built  his  house  upon 
the  sand,  in  fear  of  falling  with  every  puff  of 
wind,  but  upon  the  sure  and  immoveable  rock, 
Christ,  wherefore  he  abode  constant  and  unmove- 
able  to  the  end."  As  they  approached  Hadley, 
in  answer  to  a  question  from  the  Sheriff,  how  he 
fared  ?  he  answered,  "  Never  better  ;  I  am  al- 
most at  home.  I  lack  not  past  two  stiles  to  go 
over,  and  I  am  even  at  my  Father's  house."  A 
poor  man  was  waiting  for  him  at  the  bridge  foot, 
with  five  small  children ;  they  fell  upon  their 
knees  holding  up  their  hands,  and  the  man  cried, 
"  O  dear  father,  and  good  Shepherd,  Doctor  Tay- 
lor, God  help  and  succour  thee,  as  thou  hast  many 
a  time  succoured  me  and  my  poor  children!" 
The  streets  through  which  he  passed  were  lined 
with  people,  some  of  whom,  when  they  saw  him 
thus  led  to  a  cruel  death,  cried  out,  "  There 
goeth  our  good  shepherd,  that  so  faithfully  hath 
taught  us,  so  fatherly  hath  cared  for  us,  and  so 
godly  hath  governed  us!  What  shall  become  oi 
this  most  wicked  world  ?  Good  Lord,  strengthen 
him  and  comfort  him  !  The  Sheriff  and  his  men 
rebuked  the  people  sternly  for  thus  expressing 
their  feelings ;  but  Taylor  evermore  said  to  them. 


XIV.] 


TAYLOR. 


169 


'  I  have  preached  to  you  God's  word  and  truth, 
and  am  come  this  day  to  seal  it  with  my  blood/' 

As  he  passed  the  alms-houses  he  gave  among 
their  inmates  what  was  left  of  the  money  with 
which  charitable  persons  ha  '  supplied  him  during 
his  long  imprisonment.  He  carried  it  in  a  glove, 
and,  inquiring  at  the  last  of  those  houses  whe- 
ther the  blind  man  and  woman,  who  dwelt  there, 
were  living,  threw  the  glove  in  at  their  window, 
and  rode  on  to  Aldham  Common,  where  he  was 
to  suffer.  When  they  told  him  that  was  the 
place,  he  exclaimed,  "  God  be  thanked,  I  am 
even  at  home!"  and,  alighting  from  his  horse, 
he  tore  with  both  his  hands  the  hood  from  his 
head.  The  people  burst  into  loud  weeping  when 
they  saw  "  his  reverend  and  ancient  face  with  a 
long  white  beard,"  and  his  grey  hairs,  which  had 
been  roughly  clipped  and  disfigured  at  his  degra- 
dation :  and  they  cried  out,  "God  save  thee, 
good  Dr.  Taylor  !  Christ  strengthen  thee,  and 
help  thee!"  He  attempted  to  speak  to  them,  but 
one  of  the  guards  thrust  a  staff  into  his  mouth ; 
and  when  he  asked  leave  of  the  Sheriff  to  speak, 
the  Sheriff  refused  it,  and  bade  him  remember 
his  promise  to  the  Council :  upon  which  he  re- 
plied, "  Well,  promise  must  be  kept."  The  com- 
mon belief  was,  that  after  the  martyrs  were  con- 
demned, the  Council  told  them  their  tongues 
should  be  cut  out,  unless  they  would  promise  that 


170 


TAYLOR. 


[chap. 


at  their  deaths  they  would  not  speak  to  the  peo- 
ple. None  of  the  martyrs  received  more  open 
sympathy  from  the  spectators,  nor  was  there  any 
one  to  whom  so  much  brutality  was  shown  by 
those  who  officially  attended.  When  he  had  un- 
dressed himself  to  his  shirt,  he  said,  with  a  loud 
voice,  "  Good  people,  I  have  taught  you  nothing 
but  God's  holy  word,  and  those  lessons  that  I 
have  taken  out  of  God's  blessed  book,  the  Holy 
Bible ;  and  1  come  hither  this  day  to  seal  it  with 
my  blood."  One  of  the  guard,  a  fellow  who  had 
used  him  inhumanly  all  the  way,  struck  him  on 
the  head  with  a  staff,  saying,  "  Is  that  keeping 
thy  promise,  thou  heretic  ?"  Taylor  then  knelt 
and  prayed ;  and  a  poor  woman,  in  spite  of  the 
guards,  who  threatened  to  tread  her  down  under 
their  horses'  feet,  prayed  beside  him.  Taylor 
then  kissed  the  stake,  got  into  the  pitch-barrel  in 
which  he  was  to  stand,  and  stood  upright,  his 
hands  folded,  and  his  eyes  raised  toward  heaven 
in  prayer.  A  butcher  who  was  ordered  to  assist 
in  setting  up  the  fagots  refused,  and  persisted 
in  the  refusal,  though  the  Sheriff  threatened  to 
send  him  to  prison.  Wretches,  however,  were 
easily  found  for  this  work,  and  one  of  them  threw 
a  fagot  at  the  martyr  as  he  stood  chained  to  the 
stake,  which  cut  his  face  so  that  the  blood  ran 
down.  "  O  friend,"  said  Taylor,  "  I  have  harm 
enough  !  what  needed  that  ?"    Sir  John  Shelton. 


ilV.J 


TAYLOR. 


171 


hearing  him  repeat  the  Psalm  Miserere  in  Eng- 
lish, struck  him  on  the  lips,  saying,  "  Ye  knave, 
speak  Latin  ;  I  will  make  thee  !"  And  when  the 
fire  had  been  kindled,  and  he  stood  patient  and 
unmoved,  with  his  hands  folded  in  prayer,  a  fel- 
low, whose  character  made  the  action  appear  an 
impulse  of  brutality,  rather  than  compassion,  cleft 
his  skull  with  a  halberd,  and  the  body  then  fell 
forward.  "  Thus  rendered  the  man*  of  God  his 
blessed  soul  into  the  hands  of  his  merciful  Father, 
and  to  his  most  dear  and  certain  Saviour  Jesus 
Christ,  whom  he  most  entirely  loved,  faithfully  and 
earnestly  preached,  obediently  followed  in  living, 
and  constantly  glorified  in  death." 

The  effect  of  such  executions  was  such  as  the 
sufferers  trusted  it  would  be,  not  what  the  per- 
secutors intended  and  expected.  It  seemed  as 
if  the  martyrs  bequeathed  to  their  friends  and 
followers,  like  Elijah  the  Prophet,  a  double  por- 
tion of  their  spirit,  from  the  flames  amid  which 
they  ascended  to  their  everlasting  reward.  "  I 
thought,"  said  Bradford,  in  a  letter  to  Cranmer, 
Ridley,  and  Latimer,  who  were  then  fellow-pri- 


*  Father  Persons,  in  his  Three  Conversions,  calls  this  excel- 
lent martyr  "  a  very  gross  and  sensual  fellow,  as  well  in  mind 
as  in  body.  In  very  deed,"  says  this  thorough-paced  Roman 
ist,  "  the  miserable  man's  business  was  principally  to  have 
his  woman, — and  with  this  faith  he  went  to  the  fire,  where 
we  must  leave  him  eternally,  as  I  fear !" 


172 


BRADFORD. 


[chap. 


soners  at  Oxford,  ..."  I  thought  your  staves  had 
stood  next  the  door ;  but  now  it  is  otherwise  per- 
ceived. Our  dear  brother  Rogers  hath  broken 
the  ice  valiantly  ;  and  this  day,  I  think,  or  to- 
morrow at  the  uttermost,  hearty  Hooper,  sincere 
Saunders,  and  trusty  Taylor,  end  their  course, 
and  receive  their  crown.  The  next  am  I,  which 
hourly  look  for  the  porter  to  open  me  the  gates 
after  them,  to  enter  into  the  desired  rest.  God 
forgive  me  mine  unthankfuhiess  for  this  exceed- 
ing great  mercy,  that  amongst  so  many  thou- 
sands, it  pleaseth  his  mercy  to  choose  me  to  be 
one,  in  whom  he  will  suffer . . .  Oh,  what  am  I, 
Lord,  that  thou  shouldest  thus  magnify  me,  so 
vile  a  man  and  miser  as  always  I  have  been  !  Is 
this  thy  wont  to  send  for  such  a  wretch  and 
hypocrite  as  I  have  been,  in  a  fiery  chariot,  as 
thou  didst  for  Elias?  . . .  Dear  Fathers,  be  thankful 
for  me,  that  I  still  might  be  found  worthy . . .  And 
for  your  parts,  make  you  ready,  for  we  are  but 
your  gentlemen-ushers.  The  marriage  of  the 
Lamb  is  prepared;  come  unto  the  marriage!" 
To  this  Ridley  replied,  "  Happy  are  you  that 
ever  you  were  born,  thus  to  be  found  awake  at 
the  Lord's  calling.  Well  done,  good  and  faith- 
ful servant ;  because  thou  hast  been  trusty  in 
small  matters,  He  shall  set  thee  over  great  things, 
and  thou  shalt  enter  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord! . . . 
If  it  be  not  the  place  that  sanctifieth  the  man. 


XIV.] 


BRADFORD. 


173 


but  the  holy  man  doth  by  Christ  sanctify  the 
place ;  brother  Bradford,  then  happy  and  holy 
shall  be  that  place  wherein  thou  shalt  sutler,  and 
that  shall  be  with  thy  ashes  in  Christ's  cause 
sprinkled  over  withal ...  So  long  as  I  shall  under- 
stand thou  art  on  thy  journey,  I  shall  call  upon 
our  heavenly  Father  to  set  thee  safely  home  ;  and 
then,  good  brother,  speak  you,  and  pray  for  the 
remnant  which  are  to  suffer  for  Christ's  sake,  ac- 
cording to  that  thou  then  shalt  know  more  clearly. 
. . .  We  do  look  now  every  day  when  we  shall  be 
called  on.  I  ween  I  am  the  weakest,  many 
ways,  of  our  company, ...  and  yet,  I  thank  our 
Lord,  that  since  I  heard  of  our  dear  brother 
Rogers'  departing,  and  stout  confession  of -Christ 
and  his  truth  even  unto  the  death,  my  heart 
(blessed  be  God  !)  rejoiced  of  it ;  that  since  that 
time  (I  say)  I  never  felt  any  lumpish  heaviness 
in  my  heart,  as  I  grant  I  have  felt  sometimes 
before.  O  good  brother,  blessed  be  God  in  thee, 
and  blessed  be  the  time  that  ever  I  knew  thee  ! 
Farewell  !  Farewell !" 

John  Bradford,  whom  Ridley  thus  affection- 
ately addressed,  was  a  native  of  Manchester,  who 
had  been  in  the  service  of  Sir  John  Harrington, 
and  by  him  employed  in  places  of  trust  and  profit. 
While  in  that  service  he  was  prevailed  upon  once 
to  pass  a  false  account.  He  was  struck  with 
compunction  for  this,  upon  hearing  one  of  Lati- 


174  BRADFORD.  [chap. 

mer's  searching  sermons,  and  forthwith  made  full 
restitution,  parting  with  his  little  patrimony  for 
that  purpose.  He  had  given  up  fair  prospects 
of  worldly  fortune,  that  he  might  become  a 
preacher  of  the  Gospel ;  and  having  graduated 
at  Cambridge,  was  ordained  by  Ridley,  licensed 
to  preach,  and  promoted  to  a  Prebend  in  St. 
Paul's.  There  was  a  baseness  in  the  circum- 
stances of  his  arrest,  worthy  of  the  men  to  whom 
the  business  of  eradicating  the  Reformation  had 
been  committed.  When,  at  the  commencement 
of  Queen  Mary's  reign,  a  dagger  was  thrown  at 
the  preacher  in  St.  Paul's,  Rradford  was  standing 
behind  him  in  the  pulpit;  and  the  preacher, 
seeing  his  life  threatened  and  actually  in  danger, 
entreated  him,  as  a  man  whose  opinions  were 
acceptable  to  the  people,  to  come  forward  and 
protect  him.  Rradford  accordingly  addressed 
the  turbulent  congregation,  quieted  them  for  a 
time,  and,  not  without  some  exertion  and  the 
aid  of  the  Mayor  and  Sheriffs,  lodged  the  preacher 
safely  in  the  nearest  house.  He  preached  him- 
self in  the  evening  at  Row  Church,  and  severely 
reproved  the  people  for  their  seditious  misde- 
meanour; though  such  was  the  temper  of  those 
citizens  who  held  the  Protestant  faith,  and  appre- 
hended what  would  be  the  measures  of  the  new 
Government,  that  he  was  told  if  he  dared  reprove 
them,  he  should  not  come  out  of  the  pulpit  alive. 


XIV.] 


BRADFORD 


Within  three  days  he  was  committed  to  prison, 
charged  with  sedition  because  of  the  influence 
which  he  had  exercised  over  the  populace. 

After  a  year  and  half's  imprisonment,  he  was 
brought  up  before  the  Council :  Bourne,  whose 
life  he  had  saved,  and  who  had  meantime  been 
made  Bishop  of  Bath,  being  one.  Bonner,  who 
had  been  present  at  the  riot,  affirmed,  that  he 
took  upon  him  to  rule  and  lead  the  people  mala- 
pertly,  thereby  declaring,  that  he  was  the  author 
of  the  sedition  ;  and  his  protestations,  and  appeals 
to  Bourne  himself,  that  what  he  had  done  had 
been  at  Bourne's  request,  and  at  the  peril  of  his 
own  life,  were  disregarded.  He  was  told,  how- 
ever, that  the  time  of  mercy  was  come ;  and  that, 
if  he  would  do  as  they  had  done,  he  should  receive 
the  Queen's  pardon.  Bradford  replied,  he  had 
done  nothing  that  required  pardon,  nothing  that 
was  contrary  to  the  law.  "  I  desire  mercy,"  said 
he,  "  with  God's  mercy ;  but  mercy,  with  God's 
wrath,  God  keep  me  from  !"  "  Well,  (said  Gar- 
diner,) if  thou  make  this  babbling,  being  altogether 
ignorant  and  vain-glorious,  and  wilt  not  receive 
mercy  offered  thee,  know,  for  truth,  that  the 
Queen  is  minded  to  make  a  purgation  of  all  such 
as  thou  art."  Bourne  himself  was  vile  enough  to 
aggravate  the  charges  against  him,  saying,  he  had 
done  more  harm  by  letters,  during  his  imprison- 
ment, than  ever  he  did  by  preaching  when  he  was 
at  large. 


176 


BRADFORD. 


[chap. 


Bradford  might  have  escaped  from  prison,  if 
he  had  thought  fit.  The  keepers  had  such  per- 
fect confidence  in  him,  that  they  let  him  go  into 
the  city  to  visit  a  sick  friend,  and  would  even 
have  allowed  him  to  ride  into  the  country.  But 
he  was  one  of  those  persons  who  believed  that 
the  cause  of  religion  was  at  this  time  best  to  be 
served  by  bearing  testimony  to  it  in  death.  This 
he  held  to  be  the  only  resistance  which  was  law- 
ful. The  advice  which  he  gave  to  the  Protestants 
was,  "  Howsoever  you  do,  be  obedient  to  the 
higher  powers;  that  is,  in  no  point,  either  in 
hand  or  tongue,  rebel ;  but  rather,  if  they  com- 
mand that  which  with  good  conscience  you  can- 
not obey,  lay  your  head  on  the  block,  and  suffer 
whatsoever  they  shall  do.  By  patience,  possess 
your  souls."  To  his  mother  he  said,  "  Per- 
chance you  are  weakened  in  that  which  I  have 
preached,  because  God  doth  not  defend  it  as  you 
think,  but  suffereth  the  Popish  doctrines  to  come 
again,  and  prevail.  Good  mother,  God  by  this 
doth  prove  and  try  his  people  :. .  .  when  the  blast 
cometh,  then  flieth  away  the  chaff,  but  the  wheat 
remaineth."  And  he  encouraged  her  to  suffer 
for  the  truth,  rather  than  forsake  it :  "  Sure  may 
we  be,"  he  said,  "  that,  of  all  deaths,  it  is  most 
to  be  desired  to  die  for  God's  sake.  You  shall 
see  that  I  speak  as  I  think  ;  for,  by  God's  grace, 
I  will  drink,  before  you,  of  this  cup,  if  I  be  put 


XIV.] 


BRADFORD. 


177 


to  it.  I  doubt  not  but  God  will  give  me  his 
grace,  and  strengthen  rae  thereunto  :  pray  that  he 
would,  and  that  I  refuse  it  not !  In  peace,  when 
no  persecution  was,  then  were  you  content,  and 
glad  to  hear  me  ;  then  did  you  believe  me : 
and  will  ye  not  do  so  now,  seeing  I  speak  that 
which,  1  trust,  by  God's  grace,  to  verify  with  my 
life  ?» 

Great  efforts  were  made  to  induce  him  to  sub- 
mit himself,  and  be  reconciled  to  the  Romish 
Church.  They  told  him,  that  Cranmer,  and  his 
companions  at  Oxford,  were  unable  to  answer  the 
Catholic  divines,  and  had,  therefore,  desired  to 
confer  with  some  of  them,  for  the  purpose  of  a 
reconciliation ;  and  they  urged  him,  in  like  man- 
ner, to  ask  for  time  and  learned  advisers.  But 
he  replied,  that  he  would  make  no  such  request, 
which  would  be  giving  occasion  for  the  people 
to  think  he  doubted  of  his  doctrine,  wherein  he 
was  most  assured.  But  when  they  insisted  upon 
bringing  learned  men  to  him,  he  assented,  in  or- 
der that  all  men  might  know  he  feared  not  to 
have  his  faith  sifted  and  tried.  They  brought,  at 
different  times,  their  most  practised  disputants, 
the  Bishop  of  Chichester  and  the  Archbishop  of 
York  among  others,  and  Philip's  Confessor,  F. 
Alonso  de  Castro.  This  Spaniard,  who  was  af- 
terwards raised  to  the  see  of  Santiago  de  Com- 
postella,  had  distinguished  himself  by  his  writings 

vol.  ii.  12 


178 


BRADFORD. 


[CHAF. 


against  the  heretics.  It  is  greatly  to  his  honour, 
that,  having  justified,  in  his  books,  the  punish- 
ment of  heresy  by  death,  what  he  saw  in  England 
brought  him  to  a  better  mind,  insomuch  that  he 
ventured  to  touch  upon  the  subject  when  preach- 
ing before  Philip,  and  censured  the  English  Pre- 
lates for  their  severity,  saying,  they  learnt  it  not 
in  Scripture  to  burn  any  for  their  conscience,  but 
rather  that  they  should  live  and  be  converted  : 
unless,  indeed,  which  there  is  too  much  reason 
to  suspect,  this  was  done  with  a  political  view, 
and  in  obedience  to  his  instructions  ;  otherwise, 
such  opinions  would  have,  more  probably,  con- 
ducted him  to  the  Inquisition,  than  to  Santiago. 

The  argument  turned  always  upon  the  corpo- 
ral presence  ;  and  Bradford  had  little  difficulty 
in  making  his  part  good.  Some  disputes,  which 
had  arisen  among  his  fellow-prisoners,  troubled 
him  far  more.  There  were  a  few,  who  held 
Arian  opinions  ;  more,  who  opposed  the  doctrines 
of  absolute  predestination  and  original  sin,  which 
most  of  the  Reformers  held  in  their  extreme  mean- 
ing. Bradford  was  assisted,  in  conciliating  these 
disputants,  by  Taylor,  Philpot,  and  Bishop  Farrer, 
and  by  the  imprisoned  Prelates  at  Oxford,  whom 
they  requested  to  take  cognizance  of  the  matter, 
and  remedy  it.  But  the  most  effectual  argument 
was,  an  appeal  to  their  common  danger,  and  their 
common  cause.    M  Let  us  take  up  our  cross  to- 


XIV.] 


BRADFORD. 


179 


gether,"  said  Philpot,  "  and  go  to  the  Mount  of 
Calvary  !"  "  I  am  going  before  you,"  said  Brad- 
ford, "  to  my  God  and  your  God,  to  my  Father 
and  your  Father,  to  my  Christ  and  your  Christ, 
to  my  home  and  your  home." 

At  length,  the  keeper's  wife,  with  great  emo- 
tion, told  him,  she  was  come  to  bring  him  heavy 
news,  .  .  .  they  were  preparing  his  chain,  and  on 
the  morrow  he  must  be  burnt.  Bradford  upon 
that  put  off  his  cap,  and  lifting  up  his  eyes,  thank- 
ed God.  "  I  have  looked  for  this  a  long  time," 
said  hp,  "  and  therefore  it  cometh  not  now  to 
me  suddenly,  hut  as  a  thing  waited  for  every  day 
and  hour :  the  Lord  make  me  worthy  thereof." 
He  retired  into  his  chamber,  and  prayed  awhile 
in  secret ;  and  when  night  came,  drest  himself 
in  a  shirt,  which  had  been  made  by  a  faithful 
friend,  for  his  burning.  About  midnight,  they 
removed  him  from  the  Counter  to  Newgate,  think- 
ing that,  at  that  hour,  there  would  be  none  stir- 
ring abroad ;  but  the  news  had  been  divulged, 
and  multitudes  waited  for  him  on  the  way,  to  give 
and  receive  the  last  farewell  and  the  last  blessing. 
The  report  was,  that  the  execution  was  to  take 
place  at  four  in  the  morning,  .  .  .  and  at  that  early 
hour,  Smithfield  was  crowded  with  people  ;  but 
it  was  not  till  nine  that  he  was  brought  out  from 
Newgate,  and  with  him  an  apprentice,  John  Leaf 
by  name,  who  was  to  be  his  stake-fellow, ...  a  woid 
12 


J  30 


JOHN  LEAF. 


which  this  dreadful  state  of  things  had  brought 
into  common  use.  The  lad  (for  he  was  only  in 
his  twentieth  year)  could  neither  write  nor  read, 
and  was  condemned  to  this  inhuman  death  for 
holding  the  faith  in  which  he  had  been  brought 
up,  that  material  bread  remained  in  the  Sacra- 
ment, and  that  confession  to  a  Priest  was  not  ne- 
cessary to  salvation.  Two  papers  had  been  pre- 
sented to  him  in  prison,  one  containing  a  recanta- 
tion, the  other  a  confession  of  his  opinions,  that 
he  might  choose  between  life  and  death,  by  set- 
ting his  hand  to  the  one.  The  recantation  was 
read  to  him  first ;  he  desired  then  to  hear  the 
other,  and  when  he  had  heard  it,  pricked  his 
hand,  and  sprinkled  the  blood  upon  the  paper, 
bidding  them  carry  the  bill  to  the  Bishop,  and  show 
him  that  he  had  sealed  it  with  his  blood  already. 
A  spirit  like  this  needed  no  example  to  encourage 
it.  The  elder  martyr  comforted  him,  and  exhort- 
ed the  people  to  repentance  ;  for  which,  Wood- 
roff,  the  Sheriff,  as  much  noted  for  brutality  as 
Chester,  his  colleague,  was  for  gentleness,  ordered 
his  hands  to  be  tied  ;  the  wretch  had,  just  before, 
struck  Bradford's  brother-in-law  on  the  head  so 
violently,  that  the  blood  ran  about  his  shoulders. 
Bradford  appeared  as  superior  to  pain  as  he  had 
been  to  fear.  "  He  endured  the  flame  as  a  fresh 
gale  of  wind  in  a  hot  summer's  day ;"  and  his 
last  audible  words  were.  "  Strait  is  the  way.  and 


FARRER. 


131 


narrow  is  the  gate  that  leadcth  to  salvation,  and 
few  there  be  that  find  it  :"  . . .  words  uttered  with 
the  feeling  of  one  who  had  trod  in  that  way,  and 
was  then  even  on  the  threshold  of  his  heavenly 
home. 

Among  the  persons  who  derived  strength  from 
Bradford's  exhortations,  were  Farrer  and  Ridley, 
the  Bishops  of  St.  David's  and  London.  The 
former  had  consented  to  receive  the  Communion 
only  in  one  kind  ;  and  the  other,  when  committed 
to  the  Tower,  had  gone  to  Mass  there.  He  re- 
monstrated with  both,  upon  the  evil  effect  of  such 
examples,  and  both  received  his  admonition  in 
the  same  Christian  spirit  which  had  prompted  it. 
Farrer  was  sent  into  his  own  diocese,  and  suffered 
at  Caermarthen.  He  had  such  confidence  in  him- 
self and  his  cause,  that  when  one  lamented  the 
cruel  manner  of  his  death,  he  bade  him  give  no 
credit  to  his  doctrine,  if  he  saw  him  once  flinch 
in  the  flames  ;  and  in  performance  of  that  word 
he  stood  unmoved  in  the  fire,  till  a  wretch,  im- 
patient at  beholding  his  patience,  stunned  him 
by  a  blow  on  the  head.  "  Blessed  be  our  hea- 
venly Father,"  said  Ridley,  "for  our  dear  and 
entirely  beloved  brother  Bradford,  whom  now 
the  Lord  calleth  for . . .  He  hath  holpen  those  which 
are  gone  before  in  their  journey,  that  is,  hath  ani- 
mated and  encouraged  them  to  keep  the  high- 
way, et  sic  currere,  uti  tandem  acciperent  prcemium 


182 


RIDLEY. 


[chap. 


The  Lord  be  his  comfort,  whereof  I  do  not  doubt ; 
and  I  thank  God  heartily,  that  ever  I  was  ac- 
quainted with  him,  and  that  ever  I  had  such  a 
one  in  my  house."  He  blessed  God  also  that 
Rogers,  whom  it  had  pleased  God,  out  of  gra- 
cious goodness  and  fatherly  favour  towards  him, 
to  set  forth  first,  had  also  been  one  of  his  calling 
to  the  ministry,  and  of  his  preferring  in  St.  Paul's 
Church;  and  he  expressed  his  trust  that  God 
would  strengthen  him  to  be  the  third  martyr  from 
that  church  in  this  time  of  persecution. 

This  excellent  prelate,  Nicholas  Ridley,  whose 
memory  is  without  spot  or  stain,  was  descended 
from  "  a  right  worshipful  stock"  in  Northumber- 
land, and  had  been  successively  Master  of  Pem- 
broke Hall,  Cambridge,  Bishop  of  Rochester, 
and  of  London.  He  was  a  man  of  the  kindest  and 
gentlest  disposition,  which  was  manifested  by  his 
treatment  of  the  Romanist  Bishop  Heath,  when 
committed  for  twelve  months  to  his  custody  ;  and 
by  his  conduct  to  Bonner's  relations,  when  he 
succeeded  to  the  see  of  London  upon  that  pre- 
late's deposition.  The  mother  and  sister  of  Bon- 
ner were  entertained  every  day  at  his  table  with 
as  much  respect,  as  if  they  had  been  his  own 
kindred.  How  this  was  requited  will  hereafter  be 
seen. 

Ridley,  as  well  as  Cranmer,  might  have  been 
proceeded  against  for  treason,  for  he  had  preached. 


XIV.] 


RIDLEY. 


183 


by  order  of  the  Council,  in  favour  of  the  Lady 
Jane.  But  it  was  for  the  Mass  that  they  were  to 
suffer  as  conspicuous  victims ;  and,  after  one  dis- 
putation at  the  Tower  upon  that  question,  they 
were  sent  to  Oxford,  and,  with  Latimer  for  their 
fellow-prisoner,  confined  in  the  common  gaol, 
once  well  known  by  the  name  of  Bocardo.  The 
keeper's  wife  was  so  bigoted  a  Papist,  that  she 
believed  every  act  of  inhumanity  towards  them, 
would  be  carried  to  the  score  of  her  good  works ; 
but,  in  spite  of  her  vigilance,  they  had  faithful 
followers,  by  whose  means  they  kept  up  an  inter- 
course with  those  who  were  confined  in  London, 
and  received  from  thence  both  money,  food,  and 
apparel  : . . .  strangers  as  well  as  friends  contribut- 
ing to  them  in  their  affliction.  The  person,  whose 
means  enabled  her  to  assist  the  sufferers  most 
largely,  seems  to  have  been  the  Lady  Vane. 
Ridley,  during  his  long  confinement,  wrote  seve- 
ral epistles  suited  to  the  condition  of  this  misera- 
ble country.  He  advised  those  who  were  not  in 
captivity  to  fly,  as  the  safest  and  wisest  course ; 
and,  in  reply  to  those  who  were  of  opinion  that 
the  point  of  duty  was  to  remain  and  suffer  mar- 
tyrdom, he  observed,  that  in  many  things  what 
is  best  for  one  at  some  times,  is  not  best  for  all  at 
all  times.  But  as  he  prayed  that  every  Christian 
brother  or  sister,  "  when  brought  in  to  the  wrest- 
ling place,  might  not  shrink  nor  relent  one  inch. 


RIDLEY. 


[chap. 


nor  give  back,  whatsoever  might  befal,  but  stand 
to  their  tackle,  and  stick  by  it  even  unto  death," 
so,  he  said,  he  dared  not  advise  any  of  their  own 
swing  to  start  upon  the  6tage,  or  cast  themselves 
either  before,  or  further  in  danger,  than  time  and 
need  should  require.  It  was  better  to  fly  ;  for 
they  who  remained  must  either  bewray  them- 
selves, by  breaking  the  Romish  laws  and  customs  ; 
or  break  the  law  of  God,  and  offend  their  own 
conscience,  by  disserving  him.  What,  then, 
should  those  persons  do,  who,  because  of  age, 
infirmity,  poverty,  or  the  condition  of  their  fami- 
lies, dependant  wholly  upon  their  exertions  for 
support,  found  it  utterly  impossible  to  leave  the 
country?  ''Alas,"  says  Ridley,  "what  counsel 
is  here  to  be  given?  O  lamentable  state  !  O  sor- 
rowful heart,  that  neither  can  depart,  and,  with- 
out extreme  danger  and  peril,  is  not  able  to  tarry 
still !  for  these,  alas,  my  heart  mourncth  the 
more,  the  less  I  am  able  to  give  any  comfortable 
counsel,  but  this  . . .  that  always,  as  they  look  for 
everlasting  life,  they  abide  still  in  the  confession 
of  the  truth,  whatever  might  befall :  and  for  the 
rest,  to  put  their  trust  wholly  in  God,  which  is 
able  to  save  them  against  all  appearance."  The 
sins  of  the  nation,  the  hypocrisy  and  irreligion 
which  had  prevailed,  had  drawn  this  just  visi- 
tation upon  it  ;  and  he  believed  that,  without 
doubt,  the  world  was  drawing  towards  its  end. 


XIV.] 


RIDLEY. 


185 


He  wrote  also  a  letter  of  farewell  to  his  rela- 
tions and  friends,  and  all  his  faithful  countrymen  : 
...  an  earnest  and  affectionate  letter,  wherein  he 
charged  them  not  to  be  abashed  at  the  manner 
of  his  death  :  "  Ye  have  rather  cause  to  rejoice," 
said  he,  "  if  ye  love  me  indeed,  for  that  it  hath 
pleased  God  to  call  me  to  a  greater  honour  and 
dignity  than  ever  I  did  enjoy  before,  either  in 
Rochester  or  in  the  see  of  London,  or  should 
have  had  in  the  see  of  Durham,  whereunto  I  was 
last  of  all  elected  and  named.  Yea,  I  count  it 
greater  honour  before  God,  to  die  in  his  cause, 
(whereof  I  nothing  doubt,)  than  is  in  any  earthly 
or  temporal  promotion."  Then,  as  the  recollec- 
tion of  his  happier  days  arose,  he  past  intoastrain 
of  beautiful  feeling:  a  Farewell,  Cambridge,  my 
loving  mother  and  tender  nurse  !  If  I  should 
not  acknowledge  thy  manifold  benefits,  yea,  if  I 
should  not,  for  thy  benefits,  at  the  least  love 
thee  again,  truly  I  were  to  be  accounted  too  un- 
grate and  unkind.  What  benefits  hadst  thou 
ever,  that  thou  usest  to  give  and  bestow  upon 
thy  best-beloved  children,  that  thou  thoughtest 
too  good  for  me  ?. .  .  and  of  thy  private  commodi- 
ties and  emoluments  in  Colleges,  what  was  it 
that  thou  madest  me  not  partaker  of?.  ..  I  thank 
thee,  ray  loving  mother,  for  all  this  thy  kindness ; 
and  I  pray  God,  that  his  laws,  and  the  sincere 


186 


RIDLEY. 


f  CHAP. 


Gospel  of  Christ,  may  ever  be  truly  taught,  and 
faithfully  learned,  in  thee  !" 

"  Farewell,  Pembroke-Hall  ;  of  late,  mine  own 
College,  my  cure,  and  my  charge  !  What  case 
thou  art  in  now,  God  knoweth  :  I  know  not  well. 
Thou  wast  ever  named,  since  I  knew  thee,  to  be 
studious,  well-learned,  and  a  great  setter-forth 
of  Christ's  Gospel,  and  of  God's  true  word  :  so  I 
found  thee ;  and,  blessed  be  God,  so  I  left 
thee,  indeed.  Woe  is  me,  for  thee,  mine  own 
dear  College,  if  ever  thou  suffer  thyself,  by  any 
means,  to  be  brought  from  that  trade  !  In  thy 
orchard, ...  (the  walls,  buts,  and  trees,  if  they 
could  speak,  would  bear  me  witness,)  I  learned, 
without  book,  almost  all  Paul's  Epistles;  yea, 
and,  I  ween,  all  the  canonical  epistles.  Of 
which  study,  although  in  time  a  great  part  did 
depart  from  me,  yet  the  sweet  smell  thereof,  I 
trust,  I  shall  carry  with  me  into  heaven :  for,  the 
profit  thereof,  I  think  I  have  felt  in  all  my  life- 
time ever  after... .The  Lord  grant  that  this  zeal  to- 
wards that  part  of  God's  word,  which  is  a  key  and 
true  commentary  to  all  the  Holy  Scriptures,  may 
ever  abide  in  that  College,  so  long  as  the  world 
shall  endure  !" 

Then,  after  bidding  adieu  to  Heme  in  East 
Kent,  that  "  worshipful  and  wealthy  parish,"  to 
which  Cranmer  had  called  him,  as  his  first  cure  ; 
to  Canterbury  Cathedral,  whereof  he  had  once 


XIV. J 


RIDLEY. 


187 


been  a  member;  and  to  Rochester,  where  he 
had  been  Bishop;  he  addressed  his  late  see,  the 
Metropolis:  "  O,  London,  London,  to  whom 
now  may  I  speak  in  thee,  or  whom  shall  I  bid 
farewell?  Shall  I  speak  to  the  Prebendaries  of 
Paul's?  Alas!  all  that  loved  God's  Word,  and 
were  the  true  setters-forth  thereof,  are  now  . . . 
some  burnt  and  slain,  some  exiled  and  banished, 
and  some  holden  in  hard  prison,  and  appointed 
daily  to  be  put  to  most  cruel  death,  for  Christ's 
Gospel-sake.  ...  As  to  my  deposition,  and  the 
spoil  of  my  goods,  I  refer  it  unto  God,  which  is 
a  just  judge  ;  and  I  beseech  God,  that  that, 
which  is  but  my  personal  wrong,  be  not  laid  to 
thy  charge  in  the  latter  day. . . .  O  thou  now 
wicked  and  bloody  See,  why  doest  thou  set  up 
again  the  altars  of  Idolatry,  which,  by  the  word 
of  God,  were  justly  taken  away  ?  Why  hast  thou 
overthrown  the  Lord's  Table?  Why  dost  thou 
daily  delude  the  people?  Why  babblest  thou 
the  Common  Prayer  in  a  strange  tongue  ?  .  . .  Nay, 
hearken,  thou  whorish  bawd  of  Babylon,  thou 
wicked  limb  of  Antichrist,  thou  bloody  wolf, 
why  slayest  thou  down,  and  makest  havoc  of  the 
prophets  of  God?  Why  murderest  thou  so 
cruelly  Christ's  poor  silly  sheep,  which  will  not 
hear  thy  voice,  because  thou  art  a  stranger,  and 
will  follow  none  other  but  their  own  pastor, 
Christ?..  .Thinkest  thou,  that  the  Lord  will  not 


188 


RIDLEY. 


[chap. 


require  the  blood  of  his  Saints  at  thy  hands?... 
Yet,  O  London,  I  may  not  leave  thee  thus !". . . 
and  then  passing  into  a  strain  more  accordant 
to  his  mild  and 'kindly  temper,  he  remembered 
the  many  secret  mourners  in  that  city,  who  were 
groaning  under  the  iniquity  of  the  times ;  be- 
stowed a  noble  eulogium  upon  the  two  Mayors, 
Sir  Richard  Dobs  and  Sir  George  Barnes,  who 
had  so  zealously  co-operated  with  him  in  the 
establishment  of  the  Hospitals,  and  would  have 
done  so  much  more,  had  King  Edward  continued 
to  reign;  bade  all  the  faithful  citizens  farewell; 
his  fellow-sufferers,  whether,  in  prison,  or  in 
banishment,  they  were  bearing  witness  to  the 
truth  ;  and,  finally,  the  universal  Church  of 
Christ : . . ."  Farewell, dear  brethren,  farewell ;  and 
let  us  comfort  our  hearts,  in  all  troubles,  and  in 
death,  with  the  word  of  God  ;  for  Heaven  and 
Earth  shall  perish,  but  the  word  of  the  Lord  en- 
dureth  for  ever !" 

In  this  language  did  Ridley  express  his  feel- 
ings, while  he  was  looking  forward  to  the  stake. 
At  length,  White,  Brooks,  and  Holyman,  the 
Bishops  of  Lincoln,  Gloucester,  and  Bristol, 
were  sent  to  Oxford,  as  Commissioners  from  the 
Legate,  Cardinal  Pole,  to  ascite,  judge,  and  con- 
demn him  and  Latimer.  Ridley  was  called  for 
first,  and  appeared  before  them  in  the  Divinity 
School :  he  stood  bareheaded  while  the  Com- 


XIV.] 


RIDLEY. 


189 


mission  was  being  read  ;  till,  hearing  the  Legate 
of  the  Pope  named,  he  immediate! j  put  on  his 
cap.  The  Bishop  of  Lincoln  upon  this  told 
him,  that  unless  he  uncovered  at  the  names  of 
the  Cardinal  and  Pope,  they  must  order  his  cap 
to  be  taken  off.  Ridley  replied,  that  he  intended 
no  contumacy  toward  them,  nor  any  derogation 
toward  the  Lord  Cardinal,  whom,  for  his  learn- 
ing and  virtue,  as  well  as  for  his  royal  blood,  he 
knew  to  be  worthy  of  all  humility,  reverence, 
and  honour  :  and  with  that  he  put  off  his  cap, 
and  bowed  his  knee  :  "  But  in  that  he  is  Legate 
of  the  Pope,"  said  he,  covering  his  head  as  he 
spake,  "  whose  usurped  supremacy  and  abused 
authority  I  utterly  renounce,  I  may  in  no  wise 
give  any  obeisance  unto  him."  The  admonition  was 
courteously  repeated ;  and  again,  with  the  like 
mild  firmness,  answered  Ridley,  saying,  they 
would  do  as  they  pleased  in  taking  his  cap  off, 
and  he  should  be  content.  A  beadle  was  then 
ordered  to  pluck  it  off.  His  answer  was  then  re- 
quired to  certain  questions  concerning  the  Sacra- 
ment; in  which  he  acknowledged  a  spiritual,  but 
denied  a  corporal  presence.  They  would  not 
receive  his  protestation  against  their  authority, 
as  coming  from  the  Pope ;  but  he  was  told  to  an- 
swer now,  and  on  the  morrow  he  might  erase, 
add,  and  alter,  what  he  would.  When  he  re- 
quested they  would  suffer  him  to  speak  three 


190 


LATIMER. 


(chap. 


words,  White  answered,  that  to-morrow  he  should 
speak  forty;  so  having  answered  briefly  to  the 
articles,  he  was  remanded  ;  and  Latimer  was  call- 
ed in. 

Latimer  had  been  kept  waiting  during  Ridley's 
examination.  As  soon  as  he  entered,  he  said, 
"  My  Lords,  if  I  appear  again,  I  pray  you  not  to 
send  for  me  until  you  be  ready;  for  I  am  an  old 
man,  and  it  is  a  great  hurt  to  mine  old  age  to 
tarry  so  long  gazing  upon  cold  walls."  He  was, 
at  this  time,  nearly  seventy  years  of  age,  and 
had  never  recovered  the  hurt  which  he  had 
received,  when  far  advanced  in  life,  by  a  tree 
falling  upon  him.  He  had  suffered,  also,  in  his 
health,  from  the  inhumanity  of  the  Lieutenant 
of  the  Tower,  before  his  removal  to  Oxford. 
One  day,  he  sent  this  person  word,  that  if  he 
did  not  look  better  to  him,  he  should,  perchance, 
deceive  him.  The  Lieutenant,  thinking  that  he 
meant  to  escape,  and  had  been  simple  enough  to 
boast  of  it,  came  to  him,  and  demanded  what  he 
meant?  "You  look,  I  think,"  said  Latimer,  "that 
I  should  be  burnt;  but,  except  you  let  me  have 
some  fire,  I  may  deceive  your  expectation  ;  for 
I  am  like  to  starve  here,  for  cold."  His  crazed 
body  had  not  recovered  from  this  winter's  usage ; 
and  his  appearance  might  have  moved  compas- 
sion, even  in  those  who  had  not  heard  him  preach 
before  the  Court,  and  known  the  reputation  of 


XIV.] 


LATIMER. 


191 


the  man,  and  his  singular  integrity  and  worth. 
He  came  hat  in  hand,  with  a  kerchief  bound  round 
his  head,  and  over  it  a  night  cap  or  two,  and  a 
great  cap,  such  as  townsmen  used  in  those  days, 
with  two  broad  flaps  to  button  under  the  chin. 
His  dress  was  a  gown  of  Bristol  frize,  old  and 
threadbare,  fastened  round  the  body  with  a  penny 
leathern  girdle  ;  his  Testament  was  suspended 
from  this  girdle  by  a  leathern  string  ;  and  his  spec- 
tacles, without  a  case,  were  hanging  from  his  neck 
upon  his  breast. 

White,  of  Lincoln,  began  by  exhorting  him  to 
return  to  the  unity  of  the  Church.  Christ,  he 
affirmed,  had  said  to  St.  Peter,  Rege  oves  meas  ; 
words  which  implied  pic-eminence  and  govern- 
ment, Kings  being  called  Reges  u  regendo ;  and 
that  authority  was  inherited  by  the  see  of  Rome. 
If  he  persisted  in  schism  and  heresy,  they  must 
then  pronounce  him  a  lost  child,  a  son  of  per- 
dition, a  rotten  member;  and,  as  such,  to  be  cut 
off.  "  Therefore,  Master  Latimer,"  said  he,  "for 
God's  love,  consider  your  estate !  Remember, 
you  are  a  learned  man ;  you  have  taken  degrees 
in  the  schools,  borne  the  office  of  a  Bishop  : . . . 
remember  you  are  an  old  man;  spare  your  body, 
accelerate  not  your  death:... and  specially  re- 
member your  soul's  health  ;  consider  that,  if  you 
die  in  this  state,  you  shall  be  a  stinking  sacrifice 
to  God,  for  it  is  the  c  ause  that  maketh  the  mar- 


192 


LATIMER. 


[chap. 


tyr,  and  not  the  death ;  consider,  that  if  you  die 
in  this  state,  you  die  without  grace ;  for  with- 
out the  Church  can  be  no  salvation.  Let  not 
vain-glory  have  the  upper  hand;  humiliate  your- 
self, captivate  your  understanding,  subdue  your 
reason,  submit  yourself  to  the  determination  of 
the  Church." 

Latimer's  reply  to  this  was  altogether  charac- 
teristic. He  took  hold  of  the  argument,  that 
Christ  had  given  a  jurisdiction  to  St.  Peter, 
when  he  bade  him  regere, . .  .  govern  his  people. 
"  The  Bishops  of  Rome,"  he  said,  "  have  taken 
a  new  kind  of  regere.  Indeed,  they  ought  regere  ; 
but  how,  my  Lord?  Not  as  they  will  themselves; 
this  regere  must  be  hedged  in  and  ditched  in. 
They  must  regere  ;  but  secundum  Verbum  Dei :  they 
must  rule ;  but  according  to  the  Word  of  God." 
He  then  spake  of  a  book,  lately  published,  in 
which  it  was  argued,  that  the  Clergy  possessed 
the  same  authority  as  the  Levites;  and  where 
the  Bible  said,  that  the  Levites,  if  there  arose  any 
controversy  among  the  people,  should  decide  the 
matter,  secundum  legem  Dei,  according  to  the  law 
of  God,  . .  .these  words  were  left  out,  and  the  text 
was  quoted  as  saying,  that,  as  the  Priests  should 
decide  the  matter,  so  it  ought  to  be  taken  of  the 
people.  "A  large  authority,  I  ensure  you!"  said 
Latimer.  "What  gelding  of  Scripture  is  this! 
What  clipping  of  God's  coin?"    White  replied,  he 


XIV.] 


LATIMER. 


193 


knew  nothing  of  the  book :  upon  which  Latimer 
told  tliem,  it  was  written  by  one,  who  was  now 
Bishop  of  Gloucester ;  a  person  whom  he  did 
not  know,  nor  had  ever,  to  his  knowledge,  seen. 
This  occasioned  a  laugh  ;  because  that  Bishop 
was  one  of  his  judges,  and  now  rose  up,  saying, 
it  was  his  book.  "  Was  it  your's,  my  Lord  ?" 
quoth  Latimer,  "indeed,  I  knew  not  your  Lord- 
ship ;  nor  did  I  ever  see  you  before, . .  .  neither  yet 
see  you  now,  through  the  brightness  of  the  sun 
shining  betwixt  you  and  me."  The  audience, 
upon  this,  with  a  brutality,  of  which  even  edu- 
cated men  are  capable,  when  they  act  in  crowds, 
laughed  again.  "  Why,  my  Masters,"  said  the 
old  man,  "  this  is  no  laughing  matter !  I  answer 
upon  life  and  death!  Vce  vobis  qui  ridetis  nunc, 
quoniamflcbitis  /"  The  Bishop  defended  his  book, 
and  said,  "  Master  Latimer,  hereby  every  man 
may  see  what  learning  you  have."  "Lo,"  ex- 
claimed the  infirm  old  man,  whose  intellect  and 
heart  were  still  sound  and  vigorous  as  ever,  "  Lo, 
you  look  for  learning  at  my  hands,  which  have 
gone  so  long  to  the  School  of  Oblivion,  making 
the  bare  walls  my  library  ; . .  .  keeping  me  so  long 
in  prison,  without  book,  or  pen  and  ink, .  . .  and 
now  you  let  me  loose,  to  come  and  answer  to 
articles!  You  deal  with  me,  as  though  two  were 
appointed  to  fight  for  life  and  death  :  and  over- 
night, the  one,  through  friends  and  favour,  is 
vol.  n.  13 


194 


LATIMER. 


[chap. 


cherished,  and  hath  good  eounsel  given  him  how 
to  encounter  with  his  enemy  ;  the  other,  for  envy, 
or  lack  of  friends,  all  the  whole  night  is  set  in  the 
stocks.  In  the  morning,  when  they  shall  meet, 
the  one  is  in  strength,  and  lusty;  the  other  is 
stark  of  his  limbs,  and  almost  dead  for  feebleness. 
Think  you,  that  to  run  through  this  man  with  a 
spear  is  not  a  goodly  victory  V 

When  Latimer  had  answered  to  the  articles, 
he  prayed  they  would  let  him  declare,  in  three 
words,  why  he  refused  the  authority  of  the  Pope. 
He  was  answered,  as  Ridley  had  been,  that,  on 
the  morrow,  he  might  speak  forty.  "  Nay,  my 
Lords,"  said  he,  "  I  beseech  you,  do  with  me 
now  as  it  shall  please  your  Lordships.  I  pray 
you,  let  me  not  be  troubled  to-morrow  again. 
As  for  my  part,  I  require  no  respite,  for  I  am  at 
a  point."  But  they  insisted  that  he  should  ap- 
pear again,  saying,  they  trusted  God  would  work 
with  him  by  the  morrow  ;. . .  and  thus  he  was  re- 
manded. 

On  the  following  day,  the  Session  was  held, 
in  St.  Mary's  Church,  which  had  been  fitted  up 
for  the  occasion,  with  a  high  throne  for  the  Com- 
missioners, trimmed  with  cloth  of  tissue  and  silk; 
and,  at  some  distance  from  their  feet,  Ridley  was 
set,  at  a  framed  table,  which  was  covered  with  a 
silk  cloth :  the  space  wherein  the  table  stood 
was  compassed  with  seats  for  the  Heads  of  the 


XIV.] 


KIDLEY. 


195 


University,  and  their  friends;  and  the  body  of 
the  building  crowded  with  spectators.  After 
the  Bishops  had  in  vain  exhorted  and  entreated 
him  to  submit  himself  to  the  Church,  he  desired 
leave,  as  had  been  promised  him,  to  state,  why 
he  could  not,  in  conscience,  admit  the  authority 
of  the  Pope.  White  acknowledged,  that  when 
he  had  demanded  leave  to  speak  three  words,  he 
had  promised  to  allow  him  forty  ;  and  that  grant 
he  said  he  would  perform.  Upon  which  Dr. 
Weston,  a  man  infamously  conspicuous  as  one  of 
the  most  active  and  willing  agents  in  the  Marian 
persecution,  exclaimed,  "  Why,  he  hath  spoken 
four  hundred  already!"  Ridley  confessed  he  had, 
but  not  upon  that  matter;  and  White  then,. .  .  for 
now,  not  courtesy  alone,  but  even  the  appear- 
ance of  decent  humanity,  was  laid  aside,  .  .  .  bade 
him  take  his  license,  but  keep  to  the  number 
prescribed,  which,  he  said,  he  would  count  upon 
his  fingers  ;  before  Ridley  had  finished  a  sentence, 
the  Romanists,  who  were  sitting  by,  cried,  that 
his  number  was  out ;  and  thus  he  was  silenced. 
White  took  God  to  witness,  that  he  was  sorry 
for  him.  "  I  believe  it  well,  my  Lord,"  replied 
Ridley,  "  forasmuch  as  it  will  one  day  be  bur- 
denous  to  your  soul !"  Sentence  was  then  pro- 
nounced ;  after  which,  they  excommunicated  and 
delivered  him  to  the  secular  powers.  Latimer 
was  next  called  in.  and  had  as  little  liberty  of 
1.3 


196 


RIDLEY. 


speech  allowed  him.  He  appealed  to  the  next 
General  Council  which  should  be  truly  called  in 
God's  name.  White  told  him,  it  would  be  a  long 
season  before  such  a  convocation  as  he  meant 
would  be  called  ;  and  he  was  committed,  in  like 
manner,  to  the  Mayor's  custody,  till  the  time  of 
execution. 

The  ceremony  of  degradation  was  performed 
upon  Ridley,  at  the  Mayor's  house,  by  the  Bishop 
of  Gloucester,  with  the  Vice-Chancellor,  and  the 
other  Romanists,  who  now  occupied  all  offices 
in  the  University.  They  threatened  to  gag  him, 
when  he  declared  that,  as  long  as  he  had  breath, 
he  would  speak  against  their  abominable  doings; 
and  when  they  would  have  made  him  hold  the 
chalice  and  the  wafer-cake,  he  said  he  would 
not  take  them,  but  would  let  them  fall  :  so  that 
one  of  the  attendants  held  them  in  his  hand.  This 
mockery  being  ended,  Ridley  would  have  dis- 
coursed with  Brooks  concerning  it ;  but  he  was 
told,  that  being  an  excommunicated  man,  it  was 
not  lawful  to  converse  with  him.  Brooks,  how- 
ever, promised  to  promote  a  supplication  to  the 
Queen,  which  the  .  Martyr  read.  It  related  to 
some  tenants  of  the  see  of  London,  who  had  re- 
newed their  leases,  while  he  was  Bishop,  upon 
fair  terms,  in  customary  form  ;  but  who  were  in 
danger  of  ruin,  because  Bonner  would  not  allow 
of  the  renewal.    He  prayed,  that  their  leases 


XIV.] 


RIDLEY 


197 


might  be  held  good,  as  conscience  and  equity  re- 
quired ;  or  if  that  might  not  be,  that,  out  of  the 
property  which  he  had  left  at  Fulham,  they  might 
be  repaid  such  part  of  the  fines  as  he  had  receiv- 
ed ;  half  his  plate,  he  thought,  might  suffice  for 
this.  And  he  petitioned  for  his  sister,  whose  hus- 
band Bonner  had  deprived  of  the  provision  which 
he  had  made  for  her  and  her  family.  The  Arch- 
bishop of  York,  he  said,  who  had  lived  with  him 
more  than  a  year,  knew  the  circumstances,  and 
would  certify  the  Queen,  that  he  petitioned  for  no- 
thing but  what  was  just  and  right. 

When  Ridley  came  to  his  sister's  name,  in  this 
supplication,  his  voice  faultered,  and,  for  a  little 
while,  tears  prevented  him  from  proceeding.  Re- 
covering himself,  he  said,  "  This  is  nature  that 
nooveth  me;  but  I  have  now  done."  The  Bishop 
of  Gloucester  promised  in  conscience  to  further 
his  request ;  but  so  far  was  Bonner  from  acknow- 
ledging the  beneficence  which  Ridley  had  shown 
to  his  mother  and  sister,  that,  not  content  with 
depriving  the  martyred  Bishop's  brother-in-law 
of  his  means  of  subsistence,  he  threatened,  in  his 
brutal  language,  to  make  twelve  Godfathers  go 
upon  him;  and  would  have  brought  him  to  the 
stake,  if  Heath,  in  return  for  the  kindness  he  had 
experienced  from  Ridley,  had  not  interposed,  and 
saved  him. 


19«  RIDLEY  AND  LATIMER.  [chap. 

On  the  following  day,  they  were  led  to  the 
place  of  execution,  which  was  in  a  ditch  opposite 
Baliol  College.  Lord  Williams,  of  Tame,  had 
been  appointed  to  see  it  done,  with  a  sufficient 
retinue,  lest  any  tumult  might  be  made  in  the 
hope  of  rescuing  them.  They  embraced  each 
other,  knelt,  each  beside  his  stake,  in  prayer,  and 
then  conversed  together,  while  the  Lord  Williams, 
and  the  other  persons  in  authority,  removed  them- 
selves out  of  the  sun.  These  accursed  sacrifices 
were  always  introduced  by  a  sermon.  A  certain 
Dr.  Smith  preached,  taking  for  his  text,  "If  I 
give  my  body  to  be  burnt,  and  have  not  charity, 
it  availelh  me  nothing;"  from  whence  he  drew 
conclusions,  as  uncharitable  as  ever  were  detorted 
from  Scripture.  Ridley  desired  leave  to  answer 
the  sermon :  he  was  told,  that  if  he  would  recant 
bis  opinions,  he  should  have  his  life, . . .  otherwise 
he  must  suffer  for  his  deserts ;  and  the  Vice- 
Chancellor,  with  some  bailiffs,  as  brutal  as  him- 
self, stopt  his  mouth  with  their  hands,  after  he 
had  said,  "  So  long  as  the  breath  is  in  my  body, 
I  will  never  deny  my  Lord  Christ  and  his  known 
truth.  God's  will  be  done  in  me  !"  Latimer  said, 
he  could  answer  the  sermon  well  enough,  if  he 
might;  and  contented  himself  with  exclaiming, 
"  Well,  there  is  nothing  hid,  but  it  shall  be 
opened ;"    a  saying  which  he  frequently  used. 


XIV.] 


RIDLEY  AND  LATIMER. 


199 


Ridley  distributed  such  trifles  as  he  had  about 
him,  to  those  who  were  near ;  and  many  pressed 
about  him,  to  obtain  something  as  a  relic.  They 
then  undressed  for  the  stake;  and  Latimer,  when 
he  had  put  off  his  prison  dress,  remained  in  a  shroud, 
which  he  had  put  on,  instead  of  a  shirt,  for  that 
day's  office.  Till  then,  his  appearance  had  been 
that  of  a  poor  withered  bent  old  man  ;  but  now,  as 
if  he  had  put  off  the  burthen  of  infirmity  and  age, 
"he  stood  bolt  upright,  as  comely  a  father  as  one 
might  lightly  heboid." 

Then  Ridley  uttered  this  prayer  :  "  Oh,  Hea- 
venly Father,  1  give  unto  thee  most  hearty  thanks, 
for  that  thou  hast  called  me  to  be  a  professor  of 
thee,  even  unto  death.  I  beseech  thee.  Lord  God, 
take  mercy  upon  this  realm  of  England,  and  de- 
liver the  same  from  all  her  enemies  !"  After  he 
had  been  chained  to  the  stake,  his  brother-in-law, 
who,  during  the  whole  time  of  his  imprisonment, 
had  remained  in  Oxford,  to  serve  him  in  what- 
ever he  could,  tied  a  bag  of  gunpowder  round  his 
neck.  Ridley,  being  told  what  it  was,  said,  he 
received  it  as  being  sent  of  God ;  and  asking,  if 
he  had  some  for  Latimer  also,  bade  him  give  it  in 
time,  lest  it  should  be  too  late.  Meantime,  he 
spake  to  Lord  Williams,  and  entreated  him  to  use 
his  influence  with  the  Queen,  in  behalf  of  his 
sister  and  the  poor  tenants ;  this,  he  said,  being 


200 


RIDLEY  AND  LATIMER. 


[chap. 


the  only  thing,  he  blessed  God,  which  troubled 
his  conscience.  When  the  fire  was  brought, 
Latimer  said,  "  Be  of  good  comfort,  Master 
Ridley,  and  play  the  man  !  We  shall  this  day 
light  such  a  candle,  by  God's  grace,  in  England, 
as  I  trust  shall  never  be  put  out !"  The  venera- 
ble old  man  received  the  flame  as  if  embracing 
it,  and  having,  as  it  were,  bathed  his  hands  in  the 
fire,  and  stroked  his  face  with  them,  died  pre- 
sently, apparently,  without  pain.  Ridley  en- 
dured a  longer  martyrdom,  till  the  gunpowder 
exploded,  and  then  he  fell  at  Latimer's  feet.  As 
the  bodies  were  consumed,  the  quantity  of  blood 
which  gushed  from  Latimer's  heart  astonished  the 
beholders.  It  was  observed  the  more,  because 
he  had  continually  prayed,  during  his  imprison- 
ment, that  as  God  had  appointed  him  to  be  a 
preacher  of  his  word,  so  also  he  would  give  him 
grace  to  stand  to  his  doctrine  until  death,  and 
shed  his  heart's  blood  for  the  same.  His  other 
prayers  in  prison  were,  that  God  of  his  mercy 
would  restore  his  Gospel  to  this  country  once 
again,  and  that  he  would  preserve  the  Lady  Eliza- 
beth, whom,  in  his  prayers,  says  Fox,  he  was  wont 
accustomably  to  name,  and  even  with  tears  desir- 
ed God  to  make  her  a  comfort  to  this  comfortless 
realm  of  England ! 

That  prayer,  Gardiner  would  have  frustrated. 


XIV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


201 


if  he  could:  he  left  no  means  untried  for  destroy- 
ing the  Lady  Elizabeth ;  and  it  was  even  said, 
that  he  had  once  despatched  a  writ  for  her  exe- 
cution. But  the  Queen,  if  she  had  little  sense  of 
natural  humanity,  had  some  consideration  for 
public  opinion ;  and  Philip  also  favoured  the 
Lady  Elizabeth  . . .  The  Queen's  was  a  precarious 
life,  and,  in  case  of  her  decease,  a  dispensation 
would  gladly  be  granted  for  his  marriage  with 
her  successor.  Yet  these  remote  and  uncertain 
hopes  might  perhaps  not  have  availed  much 
longer,  to  save  a  life  which  was  of  such  import- 
ance to  the  Protestant  cause,  if  Gardiner  had  not 
now  been  summoned  to  his  account.  Fox  has 
well  characterized  him  as  "  toward  his  superiors, 
flattering  and  fair  spoken;  to  his  inferiors  fierce; 
against  his  equals  stout  and  envious  ; . . .  neither 
true  Protestant,  nor  right  Papist ;  neither  con- 
stant in  his  error,  nor  yet  steadfast  in  the  truth  : 
neither  friend  to  the  Pope,  and  yet  a  perfect  enemy 
to  Christ;  false  in  King  Henry's  time,  a  dissem- 
bler in  King  Edward's,  double-perjured  and  a 
murderer  in  Queen  Mary's."  When  in  his  last 
illness  the  Bishop  of  Chichester  spoke  to  him  of 
free  justification  through  the  merits  of  our  Sa- 
viour, he  exclaimed,  "  What,  my  Lord,  will  you 
open  that  gap?  To  me,  and  such  as  are  in  my 
case,  you  may  speak  it;  but  open  this  window 
to  the  people,  and  farewell  altogether!"  Some 


202 


GARDINER. 


[chap. 


of  his  last  words  were,  "  I  have  sinned  with 
Peter,  but  I  have  not  wept  with  Peter."  The 
Romanists  say  that  he  died  in  sentiments  of  great 
repentance no  man  had  more  to  repent  of, 
nor  has  any  man  left  a  name  more  deservedly 
odious  in  English  history. 

It  is  certain  that  he  had  a  fore-feeling  of  this: 
and  finding  how  little  persecution  availed,  or  ra- 
ther that  it  strengthened  the  cause  which  it  was 
intended  to  crush,  shrunk  from  the  forward  part 
which  he  had  so  long  taken,  and  left  Bonner  to 
take  upon  him  more  of  the  business  and  of  the 
execrations  which  attended  it.  He  had  tried  it 
upon  a  scale  which  would  have  satisfied  even  a 
Spanish  Inquisitor.  He  had  regarded  neither 
learning  nor  ignorance,  age  nor  youth,  sex  nor 
condition.  The  details  which  have  here  been 
given,  relate  only  to  men  conspicuous  either  in 
character  or  station ;  persons  who  were  masters 
of  the  controversy,  and  pledged  to  the  cause, 
who  knew  the  importance  of  their  example,  and 
who  had  their  intellectual  strength,  and  the  prin- 
ciple of  honour,  to  aid  the  sense  of  religious  duty. 
But  the  persecutors  were  not  contented  with 
these  victims  ;  they  sent  artificers  and  husband- 
men, women  and  boys,  to  the  stake.  Father 
Persons,  who  had  thoroughly  imbibed  the  inhu- 
manity of  his  Church,  calls  them  a  contemptible 
and  pitiful  rabblement, . . .  obscure  and  unlearned 


XIV.] 


FATHER  PERSONS. 


203 


fellows,  fond  and  obstinate  women, ....  abject  and 
infamous.  He  praises  the  patience,  longanimity, 
diligence,  and  charity,  of  the  Bishops  in  seeking 
to  reclaim  them ;  and  compassionates  the  perse- 
cutors for  having  been  "  forced  to  punish  so  great 
a  number  of  such  a  base  quality,  for  such  opinions 
as  neither  themselves  could  well  understand,  nor 
have  any  surer  ground  thereof  than  their  own 
foolish  apprehensions."  But  "  what  would  our 
Saviour,"  he  says,  "  have  said  of  such  pastors,  if 
they  had  suffered  such  noisome  wilful  beasts  to 
have  lived  freely  among  their  flock,  without  re- 
straint or  punishment  ?"  . . .  "  Artificers,  craftsmen, 
spinsters,  and  like  people,"  he  says,  "came  to 
answer  for  themselves  before  their  Bishops,  though 
never  so  ignorant  or  opposite  among  themselves, 
.  .  .  yet  every  one  would  die  for  his  opinions  ; ...  no 
reason  to  the  contrary,  no  persuasion,  no  argu- 
ment, no  inducements,  no  threats,  no  fair  means, 
no  foul,  would  serve,  nor  the  present  terror  of  fire 
itself; ...  and  the  more  the  pastors  entreated  with 
them  by  any  of  the  foresaid  means,  the  worse 
they  were.  And  will  you  doubt  to  call  this  wilful 
pertinacity,  in  the  highest  degree  ?" 

The  compassion  which  Father  Persons  ex- 
presses for  the  persecutors,  is  worthy  of  a  writer 
base  enough  to  assert  that  the  married  clergy  (spe- 
cifying Rogers,  Saunders,  Taylor,  and  Hooper,) 
"  were  drawn  into  heresy  first  and  principally  by 


204 


FATHER  PERSONS. 


the  sensual  bait  of  getting  themselves  women 
under  the  name  of  wives ; . . .  slanderous  enough  to 
affirm  that  Cranmer,  wherever  he  travelled,  car- 
ried about  a  woman  in  a  chest  with  him;  and 
inhuman  enough  to  insult  the  memory  of  Ridley 
and  Latimer,  because  they  permitted  *  gunpowder 
to  be  placed  about  them  at  the  stake  !  His  con- 
temptuous remarks  upon  the  condition  of  the 
martyrs,  and  their  want  of  learning,  produced  a 
just  and  characteristic  reply  from  Fuller.  After 
reminding  him  that  God  sometimes  chooseth  the 
foolish  things  of  this  world  to  confound  the  wise, 
he  says,  "  Always  in  time  of  persecution  the 
Church  is  like  a  copse,  which  hath  in  it  more 


*  "  They  were  both  burned  together,"  he  says,  t;  each  of 
them  taking  gunpowder  to  dispatch  himself,  which  yet  is  not 
read  to  have  been  practised  by  old  martyrs.  It  seemeth  that 
these  men  would  have  the  fame  of  martyrdom  without  the  pain ; 
and  now  they  have  incurred  the  everlasting  pain,  if  by  their 
end  we  may  judge." — Three  Conversions,  Vol.  III.,  p.  231. 

The  same  reproach  was  made  by  Dorman,  a  Romanist,  who 
was  present  at  their  martyrdom,  and  rejoiced  in  it.  Dean 
Noel  answered  this  man's  writings,  and  said  upon  this  point, 
"  Why  may  you  devise  means  of  long  afflicting  and  tormenting 
innocent  and  true  Christians,  (as  the  Papists  did  by  slack  and 
lingering  fire  made  of  green  fuel,  as  in  many  places  was  done) ; 
and  why  may  not  they  accept  speedy  means  offered  to  them, 
whereby  they  might  the  sooner  be  rid  from  such  tyrants  as 
you  are,  and  be  with  Christ  ?" — Strype^s  Memorials.  Vol.  IV.. 
402.   (Bagster's  Edition.1) 


XIV.J 


FATHER  PERSONS. 


205 


underwood  than  oaks.  For  great  men  consult 
with  their  safety ;  and  whilst  the  poorer  sort,  as 
having  little  to  lose,  boldly  embrace  religion  with 
both  arms,  the  rich  too  often  do  only  behold  it 
at  distance  with  a  smiling  countenance,  but  dare 
not  adventure  to  entertain  it,  except  with  very 
great  secrecy."  It  appears,  indeed,  that  of  all 
the  persons  who  were  enriched  by  the  spoils  of 
the  religious  houses,  there  was  not  one  who  suf- 
fered for  his  opinions  during  the  persecution. 
They  were  made  conformists  by  the  Bull  which 
confirmed  to  them  the  possession  of  the  property 
they  had  acquired  so  ill. 

Further,  it  is  to  be  observed  of  the  martyrs  in 
humble  life,  that  they  suffered  not  for  obtruding 
their  belief,  but  for  refusing  to  renounce  it ;  they 
continued  modestly  in  their  station,  "  none  pre- 
suming to  invade  the  ministerial  function,  nor 
adventuring  to  preach,  save  only  that  their  real 
sermon  of  patience  at  their  death."  Nor  was  it 
for  vain  and  presumptuous  speculations,  nor  for 
opinions  Avhich  endanger  the  foundations  of  so- 
ciety, that  they  were  called  in  question  :  the  Sa- 
crament of  the  altar  was  the  touchstone.  "  Many, 
indeed,"  says  Fuller,  "  are  the  differences  betwixt 
us  and  the  Romish  Church,  but  on  this  point 
the  examiners  pinched  most.  Haply  because  in 
other  controversies,  Protestants,  (hunted  after 
by  these  bloodhounds.)  might  take  covert  under 


206 


PHILPOT. 


[chap. 


some  tolerable  distinction,  and  thereby  evade  the 
danger:  whereas  this  point  of  the  real,  corporal 
presence  of  Christ  in  the  Sacrament,  the  self- 
same body  that  was  crucified,  was  such  downright 
falsehood,  it  was  incapable  of  any  palliation,  and 
Avas  the  compendious  way  to  discover  those  of 
the  contrary  opinion.  This  neck-question,  (as  I 
may  term  it,)  the  most  dull  and  duncical  commis- 
sioner was  able  to  ask  ;  and,  thanks  be  to  God, 
the  silliest  Protestant  soul  brought  before  them, 
was  able  to  answer,  first  by  denying  it,  then  by 
dying  in  the  defence  of  his  denial."  "  If,"  says 
Baxter,  t;  you  are  but  sure  you  know  bread  and 
wine  when  you  see  and  feci,  and  smell  and  taste 
them,  then  you  are  at  the  end  of  controversy 
with  the  Papists." 

Two  leaders  in  this  noble  army  of  martyrs  had 
been  reserved  till  after  Gardiner's  death,  Philpot 
and  Cranmer  ;  the  latter  was  the  especial  object 
of  the  Queen's  vengeance  ;  the  former  the  perse- 
cutors seem  to  have  been  more  than  usually  de- 
sirous of  converting,  perhaps,  because  of  his  con- 
nexions, his  abilities,  and  his  temper,  which,  if 
he  had  joined  their  party,  would  have  made  him 
active  in  it.  He  was  the  son  of  a  Hampshire 
knight,  and  had  been  bred  at  New  College, 
where,  while  studying  the  civil  law,  he  had  made 
himself  a  proficient  in  Hebrew.  Having  im- 
proved his  mind  by  travelling,  he  entered  into 


XIV.] 


PHILPOT. 


207 


holy  orders  on  his  return,  and  was  made  Arch- 
deacon of  Winchester.  At  the  commencement 
of  this  bloody  reign,  he  was  one  of  the  six  clergv 
who  opposed,  in  convocation,  the  restoration  of 
Popery,  and  he  was  the  most  ardent  of  them. 
His  foresight  of  the  horrors  which  would  ensue, 
made  him  burst  into  tears ;  he  challenged  the 
Romanists  to  dispute  with  him  upon  the  question 
of  transubstantiation,  and  if  he  did  not  confound 
any  six  of  them  on  that  point,  "  let  me  be  burnt 
before  the  court-gates,"  said  he,  "  with  as  many 
fagots  as  be  in  London."  But  though  in  that 
convocation  it  was  lawful  for  him  to  speak  his 
opinion  freely,  the  faith  which  he  professed  being 
at  that  time  the  established  faith,  and  liberty 
moreover  having  been  given,  in  the  name  of  the 
Queen  and  Council,  for  every  one  to  speak  freely, 
Philpot  was  called  before  Gardiner  as  his  ordi- 
nary on  that  account,  and  put  in  confinement,  on 
suspicion  of  having  published  the  report  of  the 
disputation. 

After  Ridley  and  Latimer  had  suffered,  he  was 
brought  before  the  Commissioners  at  Newgate, 
one  of  whom,  Dr.  Story,  remarked  to  him,  "  that 
he  was  well  fed."  He  replied,  "  If  I  be  fat  and 
in  good  liking,  Mr.  Doctor,  it  is  no  marvel,  since 
I  have  been  stalled  up  in  prison  this  twelvemonth 
and  a  half,  in  a  close  corner."  Saying  then  that 
he  had  broken  no  law  in  delivering  his  mind 


208 


PHILPOT. 


[chap. 


freely,  when  and  whore  he  was  called  upon  and 
authorized  so  to  do,  he  expressed  a  hope  that 
Story,  for  old  acquaintance  in  Oxford,  would  show 
him  some  friendship,  and  not  extremity.  Story- 
answered,  "  If  thou  wouldest  he  a  good  Catholic, 
I  would  be  thy  friend,  and  spend  my  gown  to  do 
thee  good ;  but  I  will  be  no  friend  to  an  heretic 
as  thou  art,  but  spend  both  gown  and  coat  but  I 
will  burn  thee."  And,  declaring  that  he  would 
sweep  the  prisons  of  these  heretics,  he  ordered 
him  to  the  Bishop's  coal-house. 

In  a  little  dark  prison  adjoining  this  coal-house, 
Philpot  found  two  persons  in  the  stocks;  one 
of  them,  Whittle  by  name,  was  a  married  priest, 
who,  after  a  painful  imprisonment,  had  consent- 
ed to  sign  a  recantation  in  Bonner's  register. 
Unable  to  rest  after  having  done  this,  he  pre- 
sented himself  again,  desired  to  see  the  bill, 
and  tore  it  in  pieces,  for  which  Bonner  beat  him 
violently,  plucked  out  part  of  his  beard,  and  set 
him  in  the  stocks,  till  he  could  be  sent  in  due 
form  to  the  stake,  where,  with  six  companions 
in  martyrdom,  two  of  whom  were  women,  he 
afterwards  suffered  bravely.  Bonner  put  on  an 
appearance  of  unusual  courtesy  towards  Phil- 
pot  ;  he  sent  food  to  him  and  his  fellows,  and 
affected  displeasure  that  he  should  be  trou- 
bled with  persons  who  did  not  belong  to  his 
diocese.    And  when  Philpot  was  brought  before 


XIV.] 


PHILPOT. 


209 


him,  he  accosted  him  with  apparent  goodwill, 
and  said,  "  Give  me  your  hand,"  which  Philpot 
kissed  and  presented.  The  Bishop  soon  came  to 
the  point,  and  demanded  what  was  his  judge- 
ment concerning  the  Sacrament?  Philpot  an- 
swered in  the  words  of  St.  Ambrose  to  Valenti- 
nian,  Tolle  legem  et  fiet  certamen,  "  Take  away  the 
law,  and  I  shall  reason  with  you ...  I  cannot  show 
you  my  mind,  but  I  must  run  upon  the  pikes  in 
danger  of  my  life  therefore.  And  yet,  if  I  come 
in  open  judgement,  where  I  am  bound  by  the  law 
to  answer,  I  trust  I  shall  utter  my  conscience  as 
freely  as  any  that  hath  come  before  you."  Bon- 
ner ended  the  examination,  by  saying  he  should  be 
glad  to  do  him  any  good  if  he  could  ;  and,  order- 
ing him  to  the  cellar  to  drink  a  cup  of  wine,  he 
was  then  remanded  to  the  coal-house,  "  Where," 
said  he,  "I,  with  six  fellows,  do  rouse  together  in 
straw,  as  cheerfully,  we  thank  God,  as  others  do 
on  their  beds  of  down." 

In  a  subsequent  examination,  at  which  several 
Bishops  were  present,  Story  reviled  him  for  an 
ignorant,  fantastical,  and  beastly  heretic,  who  pur- 
posed to  be  a  stinking  martyr.  "  These  heretics," 
said  he,  "  be  worse  than  brute  beasts  ;  for  they 
will,  upon  a  vain  singularity,  take  upon  them  to 
be  wiser  than  all  men,  being,  indeed,  very  fools 
and  ass-heads,  not  able  to  maintain  that  which 
vol.  n.  14 


210 


PHILPOT. 


[CHAP. 


of  an  arrogant  obstinacy  they  do  stand  in... 
Well,  Sir,  you  are  like  to  go  after  your  father 
Latimer,  the  sophister,  and  Ridley,  who  had 
nothing  to  allege  for  himself,  but  that  he  had 
learned  his  heresy  of  Cranmer.  When  I  came 
to  him  he  trembled  as  though  he  had  had  the 
palsy.  These  heretics  have  always  some  token 
of  fear  whereby  a  man  may  know  them,  as  you 
may  see  this  man's  eyes  do  tremble  in  his  head. 
But  I  despatched  them !  and  I  tell  thee  that 
there  hath  been  yet  never  a  one  burnt,  but  I 
have  spoken  with  him,  and  have  been  a  cause  of 
his  despatch.  Philpot  replied,  "  You  have  the 
more  to  answer  for,  Mr.  Doctor!"  Story  then 
departed,  saying,  his  coming  was  to  signify  to  the 
Bishop  that  he  must  out  of  hand  rid  this  heretic 
out  of  the  way;  and  turning  to  Philpot,  he  ad- 
ded, "  I  certify  thee  that  thou  mayest  thank  no 
other  man  but  me."  As  the  prisoner  was  on  the 
way  back  to  his  miserable  lodging,  Bonner  said 
to  him,  "  Philpot,  if  there  be  any  pleasure  1  may 
show  you  in  my  house,  I  pray  you  require  it, 
and  you  shall  have  it."  "  My  Lord,"  he  replied, 
"  the  pleasure  that  I  will  require  of  your  Lord- 
ship, is  to  hasten  my  judgement  which  is  com- 
mitted unto  you,  and  to  despatch  me  forth  of 
this  miserable  world,  unto  my  eternal  rest."  Not- 
withstanding these  fair  words  on  Bonner's  part. 


XIV.] 


PHILPOT. 


211 


the  prisoner  was  left  to  lie  upon  straw  in  his  coal- 
house,  without  fire  or  candle,  in  the  month  of 
November. 

The  Lords  of  the  Council  were  present  at  the 
next  examination;  one  of  whom,  Lord  Rich, 
asked  him  if  he  were  of  the  Phil  pots  of  Hamp- 
shire ?  and  being  told  that  he  was  Sir  P.  Phil  pot's 
son,  acknowledged  him  for  his  near  kinsman,  and 
said  he  would  go  an  hundred  miles  barefooted  to 
do  him  good.  Phil  pot  thanked  him  for  challeng- 
ing kindred  of  a  poor  prisoner  :  and  Rich  offer- 
ed that  ten  learned  men  should  be  brought  to 
reason  with  him,  and  twenty  or  forty  of  the  no- 
bility to  hear,  if  he  would  promise  to  abide  by 
their  judgement.  He  replied,  that  unless  he  were 
sure  they  would  judge  according  to  the  word  of 
God,  he  could  not  do  this.  By  the  Word  he 
would  be  tried,  and  by  such  as  would  judge  ac- 
cording to  it.  "  For  example,"  said  he,  "  if  there 
were  a  controversy  between  your  Lordship  and 
another,  upon  the  words  of  a  statute,  must  not 
the  words  of  the  statute  determine  the  point?" 
"  No,  marry,"  replied  Rich,  "  the  judges  of  the 
law  may  determine  of  the  meaning  thereof." 
Bonner  exclaimed,  "  He  hath  brought  as  good 
an  example  against  himself  as  can  be ;"  and  the 
Lords  all  declared  he  had  overthrown  himself 
by  his  own  argument.  "  If  it  be  pondered 
thoroughly,"  rejoined  Phil  pot,  "  it  maketh  wholly 
14 


212 


PHILPOT. 


[chap. 


with  me,  and  nothing  against  me,  as  my  Lore)  of 
London  hath  pretended.  For  I  will  ask.  of  my 
Lord  Rich  here,  whom  I  know  to  have  good 
knowledge  in  the  laws  and  statutes  of  this  realm, 
albeit  a  judge  may  discern  the  meaning  of  a  sta- 
tute agreeable  to  the  words,  whether  he  may 
judge  a  meaning  contrary  to  the  express  words, 
or  no?"  Rich  made  answer,  "He  cannot  do  so." 
"  Even  so,"  quoth  the  martyr,  "  say  I  •,  that  no 
man  ought  to  judge  the  word  of  God  to  have  a 
meaning  contrary  to  the  express  words  thereof,  as 
this  false  Church  of  Rome  doth  in  many  things." 

After  farther  debate  upon  the  corporal  pre- 
sence, the  Lords  refreshed  themselves  with  drink- 
ing, and  Rich  had  the  humanity  to  give  his  kins- 
man a  cup  : . . .  "  God  requite  it  him,"  says  Phil- 
pot,  "for  I  was  a-thirst  indeed."  Dr.  Chedsey 
attacked  him  then,  and  began  by  saying,  that  in 
the  Convocation  he  had  been  so  put  to  silence  by 
his  opponents,  that  he  fell  to  weeping,  because 
he  had  nothing  further  to  say.  "  That  I  wept," 
replied  Philpot,  "was  not  for  lack  of  matter,  as 
you  slander  me  ;  for,  I  thank  God,  I  have  more 
matter  than  the  best  of  you  all  shall  ever  be  able 
to  answer,  as  little  learning  as  I  have :  but  my 
weeping  was  as  Christ's  was  upon  Jerusalem, 
seeing  the  destruction  that  should  fall  upon  her. 
And  I,  foreseeing  then  the  destruction  which  you, 
through  violence  and  unrighteousness  which  you 


XIV.] 


TH1LP0T. 


213 


then  declared,  would  work  against  the  true 
Church  of  Christ  and  her  faithful  members,  (as 
this  day  beareth  witness,)  was  compelled  to  weep 
in  remembrance  of  that  which  1,  with  infinitely 
more,  have  felt,  and  shall  feel."  It  was  in  vain 
for  him  to  protest  that  he  thought  most  reverently 
of  the  Sacrament,  and  believed  it  to  be  one  of  the 
greatest  treasures  and  comforts  that  Christ  had 
left  us  on  earth.  The  point  of  transubstantiation 
was  insisted  on;  and  Bonner,  after  a  train  of  rea- 
soning too  gross  and  despicable  to  be  repeated, 
broke  up  the  sitting,  saying  he  would  trouble 
their  Lordships  no  longer  with  this  obstinate  man, 
with  whom  they  could  do  no  good. 

After  this,  Bonner  displayed  himself  in  his 
natural  character.  When  he  summoned  him 
again,  he  addressed  him  with,  Sirrah,  come  hi- 
ther !  Called  him  a  fool,  and  a  very  ignorant  fool, 
and  said,  "  By  my  faith,  thou  art  too  well  han- 
dled; thou  shalt  be  worse  handled  hereafter,  I 
warrant  thee  !"  "  If  to  be  in  a  blind  coal-house, 
both  without  fire  and  candle,  may  be  counted 
good  handling,"  replied  Philpot,  "  then  may  it 
be  said  I  am  well  handled.  Your  Lordship  hath 
power  to  entreat  my  body  as  your  list."  "  You 
think,"  quoth  Bonner,  "  because  my  Lord  Chan- 
cellor is  gone,  that  we  will  burn  no  more  ;  yet,  I 
warrant  thee,  I  will  despatch  you  shortly,  unless 
you  do  recant."    Philpot  coolly  replied,  "  My 


214 


I'HILPOT. 


[ciup. 


Lord,  I  had  not  thought  that  I  should  have  been 
alive  now,  neither  so  raw  as  I  am,  but  well 
roasted  to  ashes !"  Bonner  then  read  the  libel 
against  him,  to  which  Philpot,  in  the  first  in- 
stance, objected  upon  legal  grounds,  as  stating 
falsely  that  he  was  of  Bonner's  diocese.  "What," 
said  Bonner,  "  art  thou  not  of  my  diocese  ? 
Where  are  ye  now,  I  pray  you?"  Philpot  an- 
swered, "  1  cannot  deny  but  I  am  in  your  coal- 
house  ;  yet  I  am  not  of  your  diocese.  I  was 
brought  hither  by  violence ;  and  therefore  my 
being  here  is  not  sufficient  to  abridge  me  of  mine 
own  ordinary's  jurisdiction."  But  in  these  ini- 
quitous proceedings  it  availed  the  martyr  as  little 
to  plead  Law  as  Gospel. 

The  libel  charged  him  with  denying  baptism 
to  be  necessary  ;  denying  fasting,  prayer,  and  all 
good  works  ;  teaching  that  faith  was  sufficient, 
whatever  a  man's  actions  might  be ;  and  that  God 
was  the  author  of  all  sin  and  wickedness.  "  Is 
not  your  Lordship  ashamed,"  said  Philpot,  "to 
say  that  I  maintain  these  abominable  blasphe- 
mies? which,  if  I  did  maintain,  I  were  well  wor- 
thy to  be  counted  an  heretic,  and  to  be  burnt  an 
hundred  times,  if  it  were  possible  !"  He  was 
now  frequently  set  in  the  stocks  at  night,  and 
being  more  narrowly  watched  and  searched  ,  was 
prevented  at  length  from  recording  the  proceed- 
ings.   They  ended,  as  usual,  in  delivering  him 


XIV.J 


PHILPOT 


215 


over  to  the  secular  arm  ;  and  he  suffered  in  Smith- 
field,  manifesting  to  the  last  the  same  brave  heart, 
collected  mind,  and  firm  faith,  which  he  had  shown 
in  all  his  trials. 

It  is  probable  that  Phil  pot,  and  some  of  his 
fellow-martyrs,  were  detained  so  long  in  prison 
before  any  further  steps  were  taken  against  them, 
in  a  hope  that  the  continual  apprehension  of  the 
dreadful  fate,  which  nothing  but  their  recantation 
could  avert,  might  exhaust  their  spirits,  and  fear, 
acting  upon  a  debilitated  frame,  produce  what 
never  could  have  been  effected  by  reasoning. 
But  this  motive  could  not  have  operated  in  Cran- 
mer's  case;  the  determination  had  been  taken 
that  no  mercy,  under  any  circumstances,  should 
be  extended  to  him;  and  it  seems,  therefore,  he 
had  been  kept  alive  thus  long,  that  he  might  taste 
the  bitterness  of  death  in  every  separate  martyr- 
dom of  his  friends,  before  he  himself  was  called 
for.  The  Romanists  hated  him  as  the  person  by 
whom,  more  than  by  any  other  single  hand,  the 
Reformation  in  this  country  had  been  conducted. 
In  what  manner  the  Protestants  regarded  him  was 
strikingly  expressed  by  Ridley  ;  "  The  integrity 
and  uprightness  of  that  man,"  said  he,  "  his  gra- 
vity and  innocency,  all  England,  I  think,  hath 
known  long  ago.  Blessed  be  God,  therefore, 
which,  in  such  abundance  of  iniquity  and  decay 
of  all  godliness,  hath  given  unto  us,  in  this  reve- 


216 


CRANMER. 


[chap. 


rend  old  age,  such  a  witness  for  the  truth  of  his 
Gospel.  Miserable  and  hard-hearted  is  he,  whom 
the  godliness  and  constant  confession  of  so  wor- 
thy, so  grave  and  innocent  a  man,  will  not  move 
to  acknowledge,  and  confess,  the  truth  of  God!" 

As  soon  as  Cranmer  perceived  what  course 
events  were  likely  to  take  after  King  Edward's 
death,  he  gave  orders  that  all  his  debts  should 
be  paid,  to  the  uttermost  farthing,  and  cancelled 
the  bills  which  were  due  to  him  from  persons 
who  were  not  in  a  condition  to  discharge  them. 
This  being  done,  he  said  he  was  his  own  man, 
and,  with  God's  help,  able  to  answer  all  the 
world,  and  all  worldly  adversities.  Those  ad- 
versities soon  came  upon  him  :  he  was  attainted 
of  treason,  and  adjudged  guilty  of  it.  Upon  this 
point,  he  knew  that  he  had  offended,  and  soli- 
cited pardon;  protesting,  that  he  had  opposed 
the  late  King's  intention  of  altering  the  succes- 
sion, and  had  only  been  induced  to  sign  the  will, 
by  the  King's  earnest  request,  and  the  opinion 
of  the  judges.  The  pardon  was  granted  ;  not  as 
an  act  of  mercy,  for  Mary  and  her  counsellors 
never  acted  under  that  impulse ;  but,  that  ho 
might  be  proceeded  against  as  a  heretic,  and  con- 
demned to  a  more  cruel  and  ignominious  death. 
He  attempted  to  obtain  a  hearing  from  the  Queen, 
that  he  might  explain  to  her,  upon  what  grounds 
her  father  and  her  brother  had  altered  the  reli- 


XIV.] 


CRANMER. 


217 


gion  of  the  country.  It  lay  not  in  him,  he  said 
nor  in  any  private  subject,  to  reform  things;  but 
quietly  to  suffer  what  they  could  not  amend. 
Yet  he  thought  it  his  duty,  considering  what 
place  he  once  bore,  and  knowing  what  he  did, 
and  having  borne  a  great  part  in  all  the  altera- 
tions, to  show  the  Queen  his  mind ;  and  when  he 
had  done  this,  he  should  think  himself  discharged. 
If  this  request  had  been  granted,  it  would  have 
produced  no  effect.  But,  after  his  removal  to  Ox- 
ford, he,  with  Ridley  and  Latimer,  was  brought 
forward  in  St.  Mary's,  to  hold  a  disputation  with 
the  Romanists, ...  that  the  latter  might  adjudge 
the  victory  to  themselves.  When  this  was  over, 
they  were  condemned  as  heretics;  from  which 
sentence  Cranmer  appealed  to  the  just  judgement 
of  the  Almighty. 

But  because  the  kingdom  had  not,  at  that 
time,  been  reconciled  to  the  Pope,  he  was  to  be 
tried  and  sentenced  upon  a  new  Commission. 
Accordingly,  he  was  arraigned  for  blasphemy, 
incontinency,  and  heresy,  before  the  same  Com- 
missioners who  condemned  his  fellow  prisoners : 
upon  which  occasion,  vailing  his  cap,  like  them, 
to  the  Queen's  representatives,  he  covered  him- 
self when  he  looked  at  the  Pope's  delegate, 
Brooks  opened  the  proceedings  with  a  speech, 
in  which  he  reminded  the  Archbishop  of  the  low 
origin  from  which  he  had  risen,  and  the  high  de- 


218 


CRANMER. 


[chap. 


gree  whence  he  had  fallen,  lower  and  lower,  and 
now  to  the  lowest  degree  of  all, ...  to  the  end  of 
honour  and  life.  "  If  the  light  of  your  candle," 
said  he,  "  be  dusky,  your  candlestick  is  like  to 
be  removed,  and  have  a  great  fall ;  so  low,  that 
it  be  quite  out  of  God's  favour,  and  past  all  hope 
of  recovery  :  for  in  hell  is  no  redemption.  The 
danger  whereof  being  so  great,  very  pity  causeth 
me  to  say,  remember  from  whence  thou  hast 
fallen  !  . .  .  I  add  also,  and  whither  you  fall!"  He 
then  exhorted  him  to  renounce  his  errors,  assur- 
ing him,  that  he  had  been  spared  for  his  treason, 
in  hope  of  his  amendment ;  and  that,  if  he  were 
converted,  it  was  ten  to  one  that  though  he  had 
been  Metropolitan  of  England,  he  should  be  as 
well  still,  and  rather  better. 

Cranmer  maintained  his  cause  with  his  wonted 
learning  and  gentleness,  and  with  that  superiority 
which  the  cause  itself  gave  him.  When  he  ac- 
knowledged his  marriage,  one  of  the  Commis- 
sioners observed,  that  his  children  then  were 
bondmen  to  the  see  of  Canterbury.  He  smiled 
at  this,  and  asked  whether,  if  a  Priest  kept  a 
concubine,  their  issue  were  bondmen  ?  adding, 
"  I  trust  you  will  make  my  children's  case  no 
worse."  Depositions  concerning  the  doctrines 
he  had  preached  were  taken  against  him,  and  he 
was  then  cited  to  appear  at  Rome  in  person 
within  eighty  days,  there  to  make  his  answer. 


XIV.] 


CRANMER. 


219 


This,  he  said,  he  would  be  content  to  do,  if  the 
Queen  would  send  him:...  but  this  was  a  mere 
form  and  mockery,  for  he  was  detained  in  strait 
prison ;  and,  at  the  end  of  the  term,  declared 
contumacious  for  not  appearing,  and  as  such  con- 
demned. They  did  not  even  wait  till  the  term 
was  expired  before  they  degraded  him.  Thirlby 
and  Bonner  were  commissioned  to  perform  this 
ceremony.  The  former  had  been  his  old  and  fa- 
miliar friend,  and  had  received  many  and  great 
kindnesses  from  his  hands :  his  tears  and  his 
emotions  showed  that  he  remembered  this.  But 
Bonner  officiated  with  characteristic  insolence. 
That  the  mockery  might  be  more  insulting,  the 
vestments  were  made  of  rags  and  canvass.  In 
this  plight,  with  a  mock  mitre  and  pall,  and  a 
crosier  in  his  hand,  he  was  exhibited  in  St.  Ma- 
ry's, while  the  brutal  Bonner  exclaimed,  "This 
is  the  man  that  hath  despised  the  Pope,  and  now 
is  to  be  judged  by  him  !  This  is  the  man  that 
hath  pulled  down  so  many  churches,  and  now  is 
come  to  be  judged  in  a  church  !  This  is  the  man 
that  condemned  the  blessed  Sacrament,  and  now 
is  come  to  be  condemned  before  that  Sacra- 
ment !"  And  in  this  strain  he  went  on,  though 
Thirlby  repeatedly  pulled  him  by  the  sleeve,  to 
make  him  desist,  and  had  obtained  a  promise 
from  him  to  use  Cranmer  with  reverence.  The 
Archbishop  submitted  calmly  to  all,  saying,  he 


220 


CRANMER. 


[chap. 


had  done  with  this  gear  long  ago :  but  he  held 
the  crosier  fast ;  and  instead  of  yielding  it,  de- 
livered a  paper,  containing  his  appeal  to  a  Ge- 
neral Council.  He  was  then  drest  in  a  yeoman's 
threadbare  gown  and  a  townsman's  cap,  and  sent 
back  to  prison. 

He  was  now  dealt  with  very  differently  from 
any  of  the  former  sufferers ;  for  he  was  removed 
to  the  house  of  the  Dean  of  Christ  Church,  and 
treated  there  rather  as  a  guest  than  a  prisoner, 
with  every  possible  indulgence,  and  with  every 
mark  of  real,  or  pretended,  regard ;  some,  per- 
haps, acting  from  sincere  attachment  to  him,  others 
in  the  hope  of  prevailing  upon  a  mind  which  was 
naturally  timid.  That  they  succeeded,  is  cer- 
tain; but  it  is  doubtful  to  what  extent.  The 
probability  is,  that  he  signed  an  equivocal  re- 
cantation ;  and  that  the  other  papers,  five  in 
number,  wherein  he  was  made  to  acknowledge, 
in  the  most  explicit  terms,  the  doctrines  which 
he  had  repeatedly  confuted,  and  to  vilify  himself 
as  a  mischief-maker  and  blasphemer,  were  fabri- 
cated by  Bonner's  directions.  The  circumstan- 
ces are  altogether  suspicious,  as  well  as  per- 
plexed;  and  nothing  appears  certain,  but  that 
he  submitted,  under  a  promise  that  his  life 
should  be  spared,  and  that  he  should  pass  it,  if 
he  did  not  wish  for  wealth  or  dignity,  in  a  pri- 
vate station,  and  wherever  he  jisted.    That,  after 


xiv.j 


CHANMER. 


221 


this,  it  should  have  been  determined,  not  only  to 
put  him  to  death,  but  to  make  him  suffer  the 
extreme  rigour  of  their  accursed  laws,  and  burn 
him  alive,  was  a  cruelty  beyond  that  of  the  In- 
quisition itself;  the  victims  of  that  tribunal,  who 
suffered  as  confessing  and  repenting  of  their  opi- 
nions, being  always  strangled  before  they  were 
burnt.  This  cruelty  is  imputed  to  the  Queen's 
implacable  resentment  against  him,  for  the  part 
which  he  had  taken  in  her  mother's  divorce  :  but 
in  this,  as  in  all  the  cruelties  of  this  inhuman 
reign,  Cardinal  Pole  is  implicated  ;  his  principle 
was,  that  no  thieves,  no  murderers,  were  so  per- 
nicious to  the  commonwealth  as  heretics;  that 
no  treason  was  to  be  compared  to  theirs,  and  that 
they  were  to  be  rooted  up,  like  brambles  and 
briers,  and  cast  into  the  fire.  No  persecution 
was  ever  begun  with  a  more  determined  resolu- 
tion of  going  through  with  it :  upon  this  subject, 
there  was  no  vacillation  in  the  Queen's  counsels. 
But  in  the  case  of  Cranmer,  the  object  of  perse- 
cution had  been  obtained,  and  the  plainest  policy 
was  disregarded,  for  the  sake  of  gratifying  a  vin- 
dictive temper.  Never  did  malice  more  signally 
confound  itself. 

It  appears  that  Cranmer  was  not  informed  of 
the  determination  concerning  him,  even  on  the 
morning  when  he  was  to  suffer ;  but  many  cir- 
cumstances made  him  apprehend  that  his  death 


222 


CRANMEK. 


[chap. 


was  intended,  and  he  had  prepared  accordingly. 
About  nine  in  the  morning  he  was  taken  from 
Bocardo  to  St.  Mary's  church,  where  the  sermon, 
which  would  otherwise  have  been  preached  at  the 
place  of  execution,  was  to  be  delivered,  because 
it  was  a  day  of  heavy  rain.  The  Mayor  and  Al- 
dermen went  first,  then  Cranmer  between  two 
Friars,  who  chanted  psalms  as  they  went,  till 
they  came  to  the  church  door ;  where  they  began 
the  Nunc  Dimittis,  and  then  brought  him  to  a 
stage  in  front  of  the  pulpit,  raised  at  such  a  height 
from  the  ground  that  all  the  assembly  might  see 
him.  The  Lord  Williams,  and  the  other  persons 
of  authority  who  had  been  ordered  to  attend  the 
execution,  were  present  with  their  armed  reti- 
nue, and  the  church  was  crowded, ...  the  Ro- 
manists coming  in  the  hope  that  Cranmer  would 
proclaim  his  own  conversion  to  their  doctrines. 
They  who  were  Protestants  at  heart,  in  the  better 
belief,  that  "  he  who,  by  continual  study  and  la- 
bour for  so  many  years,  had  set  forth  the  doc- 
trine of  the  Gospel,  would  not,  in  the  last  act  of 
his  life,  forsake  his  post."  A  Romanist,  who 
was  present,  and  who  thought  that  his  former 
life  and  wretched  end  deserved  a  greater  misery, 
if  greater  had  been  possible,  was  yet,  in  spite  of 
his  heart-hardening  opinions,  touched  with  com- 
passion at  beholding  him  in  a  bare  and  ragged 
gown,  and   ill-favouredly    clothed  with  an  old 


XIV.] 


CRANMEH. 


223 


square  cap,  exposed  to  the  contempt  of  all  men. 
"  I  think,"  said  he,  "  there  was  none  that  pitied 
not  his  case,  and  bewailed  not  his  fortune,  and  fear- 
ed not  his  own  chance,  to  see  so  noble  a  prelate, 
so  grave  a  counsellor,  of  so  long-continued  honour, 
after  so  many  dignities,  in  his  old  years  to  be  de- 
prived of  his  estate,  adjudged  to  die,  and  in  so  pain- 
ful a  death  to  end  his  life."  When  he  had  ascend- 
ed the  stage,  he  knelt  and  prayed,  weeping  so  pro- 
fusely, that  many,  even  of  the  Papists,  were  mov- 
ed to  tears. 

Cole,  who  preached  the  sermon,  began  by 
dwelling  upon  the  mercy  of  God,  and  from  that 
theme,  with  the  preposterous  logic  of  his  Church, 
proceeded  to  show  how  necessary  it  was,  for  that 
justice  by  which  the  Almighty's  mercy  is  tem- 
pered, that  Cranmer  should  be  burnt  alive.  The 
Queen  and  Council  had  thus  determined,  not- 
withstanding pardon  and  reconciliation  were  due 
to  him  according  to  the  canons,  for  three  especial 
reasons  ;  first,  for  the  part  he  had  taken  in  the 
divorce ;  secondly,  because  he  had  been  the  au- 
thor and  only  fountain  of  those  heretical  doc- 
trines which  had  so  long  prevailed;  and  thirdly, 
because  "it  seemed  meet,  that  as  the  death  of 
Northumberland  made  even  with  Sir  Thomas 
More,  so  there  should  be  one  that  should  make 
even  with  Fisher  of  Rochester;  and  because 
Ridley,  Hooper,  and  Ferrar,  were  not  sufficient. 


224 


CRANMER. 


[chap. 


it  seemed  that  Cranmer  should  be  joined  to  them 
to  fill  up  this  part  of  equality."  He  exhorted  the 
auditors  to  note  by  this  example,  that  the  Queen 
would  spare  no  man  in  this  cause,  whatever  might 
be  his  rank  or  character.  Finally,  he  comforted 
Cranmer,  exhorted  him  to  take  his  death  patient- 
ly, and  promised  him,  in  the  name  of  all  the  cler- 
gy present,  that,  immediately  after  his  death,  dir- 
ges, masses,  and  funeral  service,  should  be  perfor- 
med in  all  the  churches  of  Oxford,  for  the  succour 
of  his  soul. 

"Cranmer  in  all  this  meantime,"  (they  are  the 
words  of  good  John  Fox,)  "  with  what  great  grief 
of  mind  he  stood  hearing  this  sermon,  the  out- 
ward shews  of  his  body  and  countenance  did 
better  express,  than  any  man  can  declare  ;  one 
while  lifting  up  his  hands  and  eyes  unto  heaven, 
and  then  again  for  shame  letting  them  down  to 
the  earth.  A  man  might  have  seen  the  very 
image  and  shape  of  perfect  sorrow  lively  in  him 
expressed.  More  than  twenty  several  times  the 
tears  gushed  out  abundantly,  dropping  down 
from  his  fatherly  face.  Those  which  were  pre- 
sent testify  that  they  never  saw,  in  any  child, 
more  tears  than  brast  out  from  him  at  that  time. 
It  is  marvellous  what  commiseration  and  pity 
moved  all  men's  hearts  that  beheld  so  heavy  a 
countenance,  and  such  abundance  of  tears,  in  an 
old  man  of  so   reverend  dignity."     Withal  he 


XIV.] 


CRANMER. 


225 


ever  retained  "  a  quiet  and  grave  behaviour."  In 
this  hour  of  utter  humiliation  and  severe  repent- 
ance, he  possessed  his  soul  in  patience.  Never  had 
his  mind  been  more  clear  and  collected,  never  had 
his  heart  been  so  strong. 

When  the  sermon  was  ended,  the  preacher  de- 
sired all  the  people  to  pray  for  the  sufferer.  They 
knelt  accordingly,  and  Cranmer  knelt  with  them, 
praying  fervently  for  himself.  "  I  think,"  says 
the  Catholic  spectator,  "  there  was  never  such  a 
number  so  earnestly  praying  together.  For  they 
that  hated  him  before,  now  loved  him  for  his 
conversion  and  hope  of  continuance.  They  that 
loved  him  before  could  not  suddenly  hate  him, 
having  hope  of  his  confession  again  of  his  fall. 
So  love  and  hope  increased  devotion  on  every 
side."  Cole  then  addressed  them,  saying,  "Bre- 
thren, lest  any  one  should  doubt  of  this  man's 
earnest  conversion  and  repentance,  you  shall  hear 
him  speak  before  you  ;  and  therefore  I  pray  you, 
Master  Cranmer,  that  you  will  now  perform  that 
you  promised  not  long  ago ;  namely,  that  you 
would  openly  express  the  true  and  undoubted 
profession  of  your  faith,  that  you  may  take  away 
all  suspicion  from  men,  and  that  all  men  may  un- 
derstand you  are  a  Catholic  indeed."  "  I  will  do 
it,"  replied  Cranmer,  "  and  that  with  a  good  will." 

He  rose  then  from  his  knees,  and,  putting  off 
his  cap,  said,  "  Good  christian  people,  my  dearlv- 

VOL.  II.  IT) 


226 


CRANMER. 


beloved  brethren  and  sisters  in  Christ,  I  beseech 
you  most  heartily  to  pray  for  me  to  Almighty 
God,  that  he  will  forgive  me  my  sins  and  offences, 
which  be  many  without  number,  and  great  above 
measure.  But  among  all  the  rest,  there  is  one 
which  grieveth  my  conscience  most  of  all,  whereof 
you  shall  hear  more  in  its  proper  place."  Then, 
drawing  forth  from  his  bosom  a  prayer  which  he 
had  prepared  for  this  occasion,  he  knelt  and  said, 
"O  Father  of  Heaven!  O  son  of  God,  Re- 
deemer of  the  world!  O  Holy  Ghost,  three  Per- 
sons in  one  God !  have  mercy  upon  me,  most 
wretched  caitiff  and  miserable  sinner !  I  have 
offended  both  against  heaven  and  earth,  more 
than  my  tongue  can  express  ;  whither  then  may 
I  go,  or  whither  shall  I  flee?  To  heaven  I  may 
be  ashamed  to  lift  up  mine  eyes;  and  in  earth  I 
find  no  place  of  refuge  or  succour.  To  Thee, 
therefore,  O  Lord,  do  I  run;  to  Thee  do  I  humble 
myself,  saying,  O  Lord  my  God,  my  sins  be  great, 
but  yet  have  mercy  upon  me  for  thy  great  mercy! 
The  great  mystery  that  God  became  man,  was 
not  wrought  for  little  or  few  offences.  Thou  didst 
not  give  thy  Son,  O  heavenly  Father,  unto  death 
for  small  sins  only,  but  for  all  the  greatest  sins 
of  the  w^Hd,  so  that  the  sinner  return  to  Thee 
with  his  whole  heart,  as  I  do  here  at  this  present. 
Wherefore  have  mercy  on  me,  O  God,  whose 
property  is  always  to  have  mercy !  have  mercy 


CRANMER. 


227 


upon  me,  O  Lord,  for  thy  great  mercy  !  I  crave 
nothing  for  mine  own  merits,  but  for  thy  name- 
sake, that  it  may  be  hallowed  thereby,  and  for 
thy  dear  Son  Jesus  Christ's  sake.  And  now,  there- 
fore, Our  Father,  which  art  in  heaven,  hallowed 
be  thy  name !" 

No  prayer  had  ever  been  composed  and  uttered 
in  deeper  misery,  nor  with  more  earnest  and  de- 
vout contrition.  Rising  then,  he  addressed  the 
spectators,  not  hurrying  impatiently  to  his  pur- 
pose, but  calmly  and  deliberately.  "  Every  man, 
good  people,"  said  he,  "  desireth,  at  the  time  of 
his  death,  to  give  some  good  exhortation,  that 
others  may  remember  the  same,  and  be  the  better 
thereby :  so  I  beseech  God  grant  me  grace  that 
I  may  speak  something  at  this  my  departing, 
whereby  God  may  be  glorified  and  you  edified." 
He  exhorted  them  not  to  set  their  minds  over- 
much upon  this  glozing  world,  but  upon  the 
world  to  come  ;  and  to  obey  the  King  and  Queen 
willingly  and  gladly,  not  for  fear  of  men  only, 
but  much  more  for  the  fear  of  God,  knowing  that 
they  be  God's  ministers,  appointed  to  rule  and 
govern,  and  therefore  whosoever  resisteth  them, 
resisteth  the  ordinance  of  God.  And  he  en- 
treated them  to  love  one  another.  "  Bear  well 
away,"  said  he,  "  this  one  lesson,  to  do  good 
unto  all  men  as  much  as  in  you  lieth  ;  and  to  hurt 
15 


228 


CRANMER. 


no  man,  no  more  than  you  would  hurt  your  own 
natural  loving  brother  or  sister.  For  this  you  may 
be  sure  of,  that  whosoever  hateth  any  person  and 
goeth  about  maliciously  to  hinder  or  hurt  him,... 
surely,  and  without  all  doubt,  God  is  not  with  that 
man,  although  he  think  himself  never  so  much  in 
God's  favour."  Lastly,  he  exhorted  the  rich  to 
make  a  proper  use  of  the  wealth  with  which  they 
were  intrusted. 

Well  aware  how  little  he  should  be  allowed  to 
speak  when  he  came  to  the  point,  he  still  pro- 
ceeded with  a  caution  which  it  would  have  been 
impossible  to  have  observed  thus  to  the  last,  if 
he  had  not  attained  to  the  most  perfect  self-pos- 
session in  this  trying  hour.  "  And  now,"  he 
pursued,  "  forasmuch  as  I  am  come  to  the  last 
end  of  my  life,  whereupon  hangeth  all  my  life 
past,  and  all  my  life  to  come,  either  to  live  with 
my  Master  Christ  for  ever  in  joy,  or  else  to  be 
in  pain  for  ever  with  wicked  devils  in  hell ;  (and 
I  see  before  mine-eyes  presently  either  heaven 
ready  to  receive  me,  or  else  hell  ready  to  swallow 
me  up !)  I  shall  therefore  declare  unto  you  my 
very  faith,  how  I  believe,  without  any  colour  of 
dissimulation;  for  now  is  no  time  to  dissemble, 
whatsoever  I  have  said  or  written  in  times  past." 
He  then  repeated  the  Apostle's  creed,  and  de- 
clared his  belief  in  every  article  of  the  Catholic 


XIV.] 


CRANMER. 


229 


faith,  every  word  and  sentence  taught  by  our 
Saviour,  his  Apostles,  and  Prophets,  and  in  the 
New  and  Old  Testament. 

"  And  now,"  he  continued,  "  I  come  to  the 
great  thing  which  troubleth  my  conscience  more 
than  any  thing  that  ever  I  said  or  did  in  my 
whole  life,  and  that  is,  the  setting  abroad  of 
writings  contrary  to  the  truth :  which  now  here 
I  renounce  and  refuse  as  things  written  with  my 
hand,  contrary  to  the  truth  which  1  thought  in 
my  heart,  and  written  for  fear  of  death,  and  to 
save  my  life,  if  it  might  be;  and  that  is,  all  such 
bills  and  papers  as  I  have  written  or  signed  with 
my  hand  since  my  degradation,  wherein  I  have 
written  many  things  untrue.  And  forasmuch  as 
my  hand  offended,  writing  contrary  to  my  heart, 
my  hand  shall  first  be  punished  therefore ;  for 
may  I  come  to  the  fire,  it  shall  be  first  burnt  1" 
He  had  time  to  add,  "  As  for  the  Pope,  I  refuse 
him  as  Antichrist ;  and  as  for  the  Sacrament,  I 
believe  as  I  have  taught  in  my  book  against  the 
Bishop  of  Winchester,  the  which  my  book  teach- 
eth  so  true  a  doctrine  of  the  Sacrament,  that  it 
shall  stand  at  the  last  day  before  the  judgement 
of  God,  when  the  papistical  doctrine,  contrary 
thereto,  shall  be  ashamed  to  show  her  face."  The 
Papists  were  at  first  too  much  astonished  to  in- 
terrupt him.  Lord  Williams  bade  him  remember 
himself,   and  play  the   Christian-man ;    he  an- 


230 


CRANMER. 


swered,  that  he  did  so,  for  now  he  spake  truth : 
and  when  he  was  reproached  for  falsehood  and 
dissimulation,  the  meek  martyr  made  answer, 
"Ah,  my  masters,  do  not  you  take  it  so!  Al- 
ways hitherto  I  have  been  a  hater  of  falsehood, 
and  a  lover  of  simplicity,  and  never  before  this 
time  have  I  dissembled!"  and  with  that  he  wept 
again.  But  when  he  would  have  spoken  more, 
the  Romanists  made  an  uproar,  and  Cole  said 
from  the  pulpit,  Stop  the  heretic's  mouth,  and 
take  him  away ! 

Cranmer  was  now  pulled  down  from  the  stage, 
and  carried  to  the  stake,  surrounded  by  Priests 
and  Friars,  who,  with  promises  of  heaven  and 
threats  of  everlasting  torments,  called  u-pon  him 
to  renounce  errors  by  which  he  would  otherwise 
draw  innumerable  souls  into  hell  with  him. 
They  brought  him  to  the  spot  where  Latimer 
and  Ridley  had  suffered.  He  had  overcome  the 
weakness  of  his  nature ;  and,  after  a  short  prayer, 
put  off  his  clothes  with  a  cheerful  countenance 
and  willing  mind,  and  stood  upright  in  his  shirt, 
which  came  down  to  his  feet.  His  feet  were 
bare ;  his  head,  when  both  his  caps  were  off, 
appeared  perfectly  bald,  but  his  beard  was  long 
and  thick,  and  his  countenance  so  venerable, 
that  it  moved  even  his  enemies  to  compassion. 
Two  Spanish  Friars,  who  had  been  chiefly  in- 
strumental   in    obtaining   his   recantation,  con- 


XIV.] 


CRANMER. 


231 


tinued  to  exhort  him  ;  till,  perceiving  that  their 
efforts  were  vain,  one  of  them  said,  Let  us  leave 
him,  for  the  devil  is  with  him  !  Ely,  who  was 
afterwards  President  of  St.  John's,  still  continued 
urging  him  to  repentance.  Cranmer  replied,  he 
repented  his  recantation  ;  and  in  the  spirit  of 
charity  offered  his  hand  to  Ely,  as  to  others, 
when  he  bade  him  farewell;  but  the  obdurate 
bigot  drew  back,  and  reproved  those  who  had 
accepted  such  a  farewell,  telling  them  it  was  not 
lawful  to  act  thus  with  one  who  had  relapsed  into 
heresy.  Once  more  he  called  upon  him  to  stand 
to  his  recantation.  Cranmer  stretched  forth  his 
right  arm,  and  replied,  "This  is  the  hand  that 
wrote  it,  and  therefore  it  shall  suffer  punishment 
first." 

True  to  this  purpose,  as  soon  as  the  flame  rose, 
he  held  his  hand  out  to  meet  it,  and  retained  it 
there  steadfastly,  so  that  all  the  people  saw  it 
sensibly  burning  before  the  fire  reached  any 
other  part  of  his  body;  and  often  he  repeated 
with  a  loud  and  firm  voice,  "  This  hand  hath  of- 
fended !  this  unworthy  right  hand !"  Never  did 
martyr  endure  the  fire  with  more  invincible  reso- 
lution ;  no  cry  was  heard  from  him,  save  the  ex- 
clamation of  the  protomartyr  Stephen,  Lord 
Jesus,  receive  my  spirit !  He  stood  immovable 
as  the  stake  to  which  he  was  bound,  his  counte- 
nance raised,  looking  to  heaven,  and  anticipating 


232 


CRANMER. 


[chap. 


that  rest  into  which  he  was  about  to  enter ;  and 
thus,  "  in  the  greatness  of  the  flame,"  he  yielded 
up  his  spirit.  The  fire  did  its  work  soon,... 
and  his  heart  was  found  unconsumed  amid  the 
ashes. 

Of  all  the  martyrdoms  during  this  great  per- 
secution, this  was  in  all  its  circumstances  the 
most  injurious  to  the  Romish  cause.  It  was  a 
manifestation  of  inveterate  and  deadly  malice 
toward  one  who  had  borne  his  elevation  with 
almost  unexampled  meekness.  It  effectually  dis- 
proved the  argument  on  which  the  Romanists 
rested,  that  the  constancy  of  our  martyrs  pro- 
ceeded not  from  confidence  in  their  faith,  and  the 
strength  which  they  derived  therefrom ;  but  from 
vainglory,  the  pride  of  consistency,  and  the  shame 
of  retracting  what  they  had  so  long  professed. 
Such  deceitful  reasoning  could  have  no  place 
here :  Cranmer  had  retracted  ;  and  the  sincerity 
of  his  contrition  for  that  sin  was  too  plain  to  be 
denied,  too  public  to  be  concealed,  too  memo- 
rable ever  to  be  forgotten.  The  agony  of  his  re- 
pentance had  been  seen  by  thousands;  and  tens 
of  thousands  had  witnessed  how,  when  that 
agony  was  past,  he  stood  calm  and  immovable 
amid  the  flames;  a  patient  and  willing  holocaust; 
triumphant,  not  over  his  persecutors  alone,  but 
over  himself,  over  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body, 
over  fear,  and  weakness,  and  death. 


xiv.]  THE  MARIAN  PERSECUTION.  233 


The  persecution  continued  with  unabating  ri- 
gour during  the  whole  of  this  abominable  reign; 
and  the  consequence  was,  that  as  the  havoc  which 
had  been  committed  under  pretext  of  the  Reform- 
ation, made  the  people  rejoice  in  the  re-establish- 
ment of  Popery,  Popery  was  by  these  cruelties 
rendered  an  object  of  horror  and  hatred  to  the 
nation.  Persons,  whom  neither  books  nor  ser- 
mons would  have  reached,  were  converted  to  the 
Protestant  faith  by  the  constancy  with  which  the 
martyrs  suffered  :  .  .  .  a  subject,  to  which  they 
would  otherwise  have  remained  indifferent,  was 
forced  upon  their  thoughts,  and  they  felt  that  the 
principle  could  be  of  no  light  importance  for  which 
so  many  laid  down  their  lives.  The  sight  of 
Latimer's  and  Ridley's  death  produced  such  an 
effect  upon  Julius  Palmer,  who  in  Edward's  reign 
had  been  expelled  from  Magdalen  College  as  an 
obstinate  Romanist,  that  he  could  not  rest  till 
he  had  searched  the  Scriptures  to  ascertain  what 
were  the  grounds  of  the  faith  for  which  they 
suffered,  and  then  openly  professed  it  himself. 
"  Thou  art  stout  now  and  hardy  in  thine  opinion," 
said  one  of  his  fellow-collegians,  as  they  sat  at 
table  together,  "  but  if  thou  wert  brought  to  the 
stake  thou  wouldest  tell  another  tale.  I  advise 
thee  beware  of  the  fire  !  it  is  a  shrewd  matter  to 
burn."  "  Truly,"  said  Palmer,  "  I  have  been  in 
danger  of  burning  once  or  twice,  and  hitherto, 


234  THE  MARIAN  PERSECUTION.  [chap. 


thank  God,  I  have  escaped  it ;  but  I  judge  verily 
it  will  be  my  end  at  last ;  welcome  be  it !  It  is  a 
hard  matter  for  them  to  burn,  that  have  the  mind 
and  soul  linked  to  the  body,  as  a  thief's  foot  is 
tied  in  fetters  :  but  if  a  man  be  once  able,  through 
the  help  of  God's  Spirit,  to  separate  and  divide 
the  soul  from  the  body,  for  him  it  is  no  more  mas- 
tery to  burn,  than  for  me  to  eat  this  bread."  Nor 
was  this  a  vain  cr  i  *idence,  for  in  the  same  spirit 
he  suffered  at  the  stake. 

The  sight  of  the  Papists'  cruelty  in  like  man- 
ner made  George  Tankerfield  misdoubt  their  con- 
duct first,  and  then  abhor  it.  He  was  sent  to 
St.  Alban's,  there  to  be  burnt  in  a  field  at  the 
west  end  of  the  abbey.  His  execution  was  de- 
layed till  the  afternoon,  while  the  Sheriffs  were  at 
a  marriage-feast !  He  meantime  observed,  that 

Although  the  day  be  never  so  long. 
At  last  it  ringeth  to  even-song. 

And  he  tried  the  fire  in  his  chamber  with  his 
foot,  to  prove  how  the  flesh  could  support  it. 
When  he  came  to  the  stake,  the  Mayor  said  that 
if  he  had  but  one  load  of  fagots  in  the  world,  he 
would  give  them  to  burn  this  heretic.  A  knight 
who  was  present  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  said, 
in  a  low  tone  of  voice,  "  Good  brother,  be  strong 
in  Christ!"  The  martyr  replied,  "O,  Sir,  I  thank 
you!  I  am  so,  1  thank  God."    And  when  the 


xiv.]  THE  MARIAN  PERSECUTION.  235 


flames  arose,  he  moved  his  arms  as  if  he  were 
bathing  in  them,  and  embracing  his  death;  so 
that  some  of  the  more  obdurate  spectators  ob- 
served, the  devil  was  so  strong  in  him,  and  in  all 
such,  that  they  could  feel  no  pain. 

Those  whose  hearts  were  too  hard  to  com- 
prehend a  worthier  reason,  might  well  entertain 
this  notion,  so  marvellous  was  the  fortitude  which 
the  martyrs  displayed.  Sometimes  they  promis- 
ed their  friends  that  they  would  lift  up  their 
arms  in  the  fire,  and  clap  their  hands,  in  token 
that  the  mind  could  be  kept  quiet  and  patient 
through  their  torments  ;  and  they*  failed  not  to 

*  Robert  Smith,  one  of  the  martyrs  here  alluded  to,  wrote 
several  poems  in  prison.  The  following  lines  from  that  which 
he  addressed  to  his  children,  are  well  worthy  of  preservation, 
the  circumstances  under  which  they  were  written  giving 
them  a  deep  interest. 

 That  ye  may  follow  me,  your  father  and  your  friend. 

And  enter  into  that  same  life  which  never  shall  have  end, 
I  leave  you  here  a  little  book  for  you  to  look  upon, 
That  you  may  see  your  father's  face  when  1  am  dead  and  gone  : 
Who,  for  the  hope  of  heavenly  things,  while  he  did  here 
remain, 

Gave  over  all  his  golden  years  in  prison  and  in  pain, 
Where  I  among  mine  iron  bands,  enclosed  in  the  dark, 
Not  many  days  before  my  death,  did  dedicate  this  work 
To  you,  mine  heirs  of  earthly  things  which  I  have  left  behind, 
That  ye  may  read,  and  understand,  and  keep  it  in  your  mind, 
That  as  you  have  been  heirs  of  that  which  once  shall  wear 
away, 

Even  so  ye  may  possess  the  part  which  never  shall  decay, 


236  THE  MARIAN  PERSECUTION.  [ciur. 


give  this  promised  assurance  of  triumphant  faith. 
A  young  man  who  was  martyred  at  Canterbury, 
George  Roper  was  his  name,  extended  his  arms 
like  an  image  on  the  cross,  when  the  pile  was 
kindled,  and  in  that  attitude  held  them  till  the 
last.  Rawlins  White,  a  poor  Welsh  fisherman, 
bow-bent  with  the  infirmities  of  age,  stood  bolt 
upright  when  he  approached  the  stake,  as  if  he 
had  already  cast  off  the  burthen  of  years.  "  1 
feel  a  fighting  between  the  flesh  and  the  spirit," 
said  he  to  one  of  his  friends ;  "  and  the  flesh 
would  very  fain  have  his  sway.  Therefore,  1 
pray  you,  if  you  see  me  any  thing  tempted,  hold 
your  finger  up,  and  I  shall  trust  I  shall  remember 
myself."  The  memento  was  not  needed,  for  the 
faith  which  brought  him  to  this  death,  supported 
him  in  it.  Another  martyr,  as  the  time  of  his 
martyrdom  drew  near,  complained  of  a  heaviness 
at  heart,  from  which  he  could  obtain  no  relief, 
though  he  was  earnest  day  and  night  in  prayer. 
The  friend  to  whom  he  made  this  confession, 
exhorted  him  to  play  the  man,  seeing  his  cause 
was  just  and  true,  and  not  to  doubt  that  the  Lord 
would  visit  him  in  his  good  time,  and  satisfy  his 
desire  with  plenty  of  consolation ;  and  he  be- 

In  following  of  your  father's  foot  in  faith,  and  eke  in  love, 
That  ye  may  also  be  his  heirs  for  evermore  above  : 
And  in  example  to  your  youth,  to  whom  I  wish  all  good, 
I  preach  you  here  a  perfect  faith,  and  seal  it  with  my  blood 


xiv.]  THE  MARIAN  PERSECUTION.  237 


sought  him,  when  any  such  sense  of  comfort  touch- 
ed his  heart,  to  show  some  signification,  that  he 
might  witness  it.  When  they  came  in  sight  of 
the  stake,  the  martyr  clapped  his  hands  exulting- 
ly,  and  cried  out  to  him,  "  Austen,  He  is  come ! 
He  is  come!"  and  that  "  with  such  joy  and  alacri- 
ty, as  one  seeming  rather  to  be  risen  from  some 
deadly  danger  to  liberty  of  life,  than  as  one  pass- 
ing out  of  the  world  by  any  pain  of  death." 

The  constancy  of  the  martyrs,  and  the  mani- 
fest sympathy  of  the  people,  provoked  the  perse- 
cutors to  further  cruelty.  What  they  could  not 
effect  by  the  fear  of  death,  they  hoped  to  accom- 
plish by  torments  in  prison;  their  victims  were 
fastened  by  the  feet,  hands,  and  neck,  in  the  most 
painful  postures  ;  they  were  scourged  and  beaten, 
tortured  with  fire,  and  deprived  of  food.  When 
Gardiner  sent  his  alms-basket  to  the  prison,  he 
sent  with  it  strict  charge  that  not  a  scrap  should 
be  given  to  the  heretics.  The  Catholic  Princes 
had  determined  to  root  out  what  they  called  he- 
resy by  fire  and  sword.  England  and  Spain  were 
the  only  countries  where  they  could  as  yet  act 
upon  this  determination,  and  they  pursued  it  in 
both  to  the  uttermost.  Cardinal  Pole  ordered 
registers  to  be  kept  of  all  persons  who  were  re- 
conciled to  the  Romish  Church  in  every  place 
and  parish,  that  proceedings  might  be  instituted 


238  THE  MARIAN  PERSECUTION.  [chap. 


against  all  whose  names  were  not  entered  there. 
Commissioners  for  Inquisition  were  appointed,  with 
power  to  summon  and  examine  any  persons  upon 
oath  touching  their  faith,  and  to  seize  upon  the 
property  of  all  who  did  not  appear  to  answer 
their  interrogatories.  The  only  measure  wanting 
to  perpetuate  the  spiritual  bondage  of  the  nation, 
was  the  establishment  of  one  of  those  accursed  tri- 
bunals which  were  at  that  time  in  full  operation 
under  the  Spanish  government;  and  this,  in  all 
likelihood,  would  have  been  done,  if  Mary's  un- 
happy life  had  been  prolonged.  The  same  tem- 
per which  encouraged  the  Inquisition  in  Spain, 
and  introduced  it  into  the  Netherlands,  would 
have  attempted  its  introduction  here.  The  spirit 
of  its  laws  had  already  been  introduced  ;  but  the 
feelings  of  the  country  were  opposed  to  this  atro- 
cious system.  The  secrets  of  the  prison  house 
could  not  be  concealed;  everywhere  the  victims 
found  some  who  commiserated  them,  and  assisted 
them  in  communicating  with  their  friends,  even 
when  they  were  fain  to  write  their  mournful 
letters  with  their  own  blood.  And  when  the 
bodies  of  those  who  died  in  prison,  either  of  na- 
tural disease,  or  in  consequence  of  hunger  and  the 
torments  inflicted  on  them,  were  cast  out  as 
carrion  in  the  fields,  all  persons  being  forbidden 
to  bury  them,  as  soon  as  evening  closed,  they  were 


xiv.]  THE  MARIAN  PERSECUTION.  239 


interred  by  pious  hands,  not  without  some  form  of 
devotion,  the  archers  frequently  standing  by,  and 
singing  psalms. 

During  the  four  years  that  this  persecution  con- 
tinued, it  appears,  by  authentic  records,  that  two 
hundred  and  eighty-eight  persons  were  burnt 
alive;  the  number  of  those  who  perished  in  pri- 
son is  unknown.  The  loss  of  property  in  Lon- 
don alone,  consequent  upon  the  arrest  or  flight 
of  so  many  substantial  citizens,  and  the  general 
insecurity,  was  estimated  at  300,000/. ;  nor  was  it 
in  wealth  alone  that  the  kingdom  suffered ;  the 
spirit  of  the  nation  sunk,  and  the  character,  and 
with  it  the  prosperity,  of  the  English  would  have 
been  irrecoverably  lost,  if  God  in  his  mercy  had 
not  cut  short  this  abominable  tyranny.  The 
Queen  was  supposed  to  be  with  child:  humanly 
speaking,  it  seemed  to  depend  upon  the  event 
whether  England  should  become  a  Protestant 
or  a  Popish  kingdom  ;  and  there  was  such  a  dis- 
position in  the  Protestants  not  to  believe  what 
they  so  greatly  dreaded  to  persuade  themselves, 
that  a  supposititious  child  would  be  imposed 
upnn  them,  that  many  were  punished  for  utter- 
ing t'ie  opinion  with  which  they  were  possessed. 
Provision  was  mide  by  Parliament,  that,  incase 
of  the  Queen's  death,  Philip  should  take  upon 
himself  the  rule,  order,  education,  and  govern- 
ment of  the  child  ;  and  prayers  were  ordered,  that 


240 


MARY. 


[chap. 


as  God,  by  his  servant  Mary,  had  delivered  the 
people  out  of  the  hands  of  heretics  and  infidels, 
so  he  would  complete  the  work  by  blessing  her 
with  a  safe  delivery,  and  with  a  male  child.  Upon 
a  report  of  her  delivery,  the  bells  rung  and  pro- 
cessions were  made,  and  public  rejoicings  were 
made  at  Antwerp.  But  those  appearances  which 
had  so  far  deceived  the  Queen  herself,  that  the 
cradle  was  made  ready,  proved  to  be  the  indica- 
tions of  a  mortal  disease. 

Not  a  week  before  her  death,  three  women 
and  two  men  were  burnt  at  Canterbury.  Certain 
circumstances  rendered  this  last  auto-da-fe  re- 
markable. John  Corneford,  one  of  the  victims, 
when  the  sentence  of  excommunication  was  pro- 
nounced upon  him  and  his  stake-fellows,  boldly 
retorted  it  upon  his  persecutors.  "  In  the  name 
of  our  Lord,"  said  the  courageous  martyr,  "  and 
by  the  power  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  we  do  here  give 
into  the  hands  of  Satan,  to  be  destroyed,  the  bo- 
dies of  all  those  blasphemers  who  condemn  his 
most  holy  truth  for  heresy,  to  the  maintenance 
of  any  false  Church,  or  feigned  religion  ;  so  that 
by  this  thy  just  judgement,  O  most  mighty  God, 
against  thy  adversaries,  thy  true  religion  mav  be 
known,  to  thy  great  glory  and  our  comfort,  and 
to  the  edifying  of  all  our  nation.  Good  Lord,  so 
be  it.  Amen !"  It  is  not  surprising  that  the 
Protestants  believed   this   imprecation  to  have 


XIV.] 


MARY. 


241 


taken  effect  against  their  enemy,  when,  "  within 
six  days  after,  Queen  Mary  died,  and  the  tyranny 
of  all  English  Papists  with  her."  These  martyrs 
seem  to  have  expected  this  desirable  end,  when 
they  made  it  part  of  their  prayers  before  they  suf- 
fered, that  their  blood  might  be  the  last  that  should 
be  shed.  One  of  them,  a  young  unmarried  woman, 
called  at  the  stake  for  her  godfather  and  godmo- 
thers, who,  by  the  presiding  magistrate's  orders, 
were  sent  for  accordingly.  When  they  came,  she 
asked  them  what  they  had  promised  for  her  at 
her  baptism  ;  and,  repeating  the  Commandments 
and  the  Creed,  demanded  if  they  had  engaged  in 
her  behalf  that  she  should  believe  more  than  this  ? 
They  answered,  that  they  had  not.  "  Then," 
said  she,  "  I  die  a  christian  woman  !  Bear  witness 
of  me  !" 

The  sacrifice  of  these  victims  is  imputed  to  the 
individual  cruelty  of  Harpsfield,  then  Archdeacon 
of  Canterbury,  a  person  as  conspicuous  among 
the  persecutors  at  that  time,  as  he  was  afterwards 
among  the  writers  in  defence  of  the  Papal  cause. 
He  hurried  on  this  execution,  when  such  abomi- 
nable cruelties  were  in  other  places  suspended, 
because  the  Queen's  death  was  daily  looked  for. 
That  event  was  not  regretted,  even  by  the  Catho- 
lics, except  by  such  as  Harpsfield,  and  Story, 
and  Bonner.  "  Melancholic  in  mind,"  (so  she  is 
described,)  "unhealthful  in  body,  little  feared  of 

vol.  n.  16 


242 


MARY. 


[chap.  xiv. 


her  foreign  foes,  less  beloved  by  her  native  sub- 
jects ;  not  over-dear  to  her  own  husband,  unsuc- 
cessful in  her  treaties  for  peace,  and  unfortunate 
in  her  undertakings  for  war,"  Queen  Mary  left 
none  to  lament  her,  and  there  was  not  even  the 
semblance  of  sorrow  for  her  loss.  She  died  in 
the  morning;  in  the  afternoon  the  bells  of  all  the 
churches  in  London  were  rung  for  the  accession  of 
Elizabeth,  and  at  night  bonfires  were  made,  and 
tables  set  out  in  the  streets,  at  which  the  citizens 
caroused. 


243 

4 


CHAPTER  XV. 


Q.UEEN  ELIZABETH. 

The  first  act  of  the  new  Queen  was  to  take  Sir 
William  Cecil  into  her  council,  and  appoint  him 
her  principal  Secretary  ;  and  of  such  consequence 
was  the  pulpit  at  this  crisis,  that  one  of  the  first 
objects  of  his  attention  was  "to  consider  the  con- 
dition of  the  preacher  at  Paul's  Cross,"  and  pre- 
vent any  question  concerning  the  governance  of  the 
realm  from  being  touched  upon  there.  The  peo- 
ple had  not  been  so  ready  to  restore  the  Romish 
religion  at  Mary's  accession,  as  they  were  now  to 
escape  from  its  intolerable  yoke.  When  the 
Queen  made  her  public  entrance,  a  pageant  was 
prepared  in  Cheapside,  where  Time  accosted  her, 
leading  in  his  hand  his  daughter  Truth,  and  Truth 
presented  her  with  the  English  Bible,  upon  which 
was  written, Verbum  Veritatis.  Elizabeth  kissed  the 
book,  held  it  up  with  both  her  hands,  and  then 
laid  it  reverently  upon  her  breast,  to  the  joy  of  the 
beholders. 

Elizabeth's  life  had  been  in  imminent  danger 
during  her  sister's  reign.    "  It  would  make  a 
16 


244  ELIZABETH.  [chap. 

pitiful  and  strange  story,"  says  Holinshed,  "  to 
recite  what  examinations  and  rackings  of  poor 
men  there  were  to  find  out  that  knife  which 
should  cut  her  throat ;  what  gaping  among  my 
Lords  of  the  Clergy,  to  see  the  day  wherein  they 
might  wash  their  white  rockets  in  her  innocent 
blood,  but  especially  Stephen  Gardiner."  Philip's 
interference  saved  her  life  ;  but  when  she  was 
committed  to  the  custody  of  Sir  Henry  Bening- 
tield,  at  Woodstock,  the  unworthy  Knight  treated 
her  with  such  severity,  using  his  office,  it  is  said, 
more  like  a  jailer  than  a  gentleman,  that  the 
Princess,  hearing  a  milkmaid  one  day  sing  cheer- 
fully in  the  fields,  wished  herself  in  the  same 
humble  condition  of  life,  so  she  might  enjoy  the 
same  liberty  and  safety.  She  now  manifested 
her  resentment  of  this  treatment  no  otherwise 
than  by  discharging  Sir  Henry  from  the  Court, 
saying,  "God  forgive  you  that  is  past,  and  we 
do ;  and  if  we  have  any  prisoner  whom  we  would 
have  hardly  handled  and  straitly  kept,  then  we 
will  send  for  you."  On  the  way  to  her  corona- 
tion she  expressed  a  due  sense  of  the  danger  from 
which  she  had  been  preserved,  in  this  prayer, 
;4  O  Lord,  almighty  and  everlasting  God,  I  give 
thee  most  hearty  thanks,  that  thou  hast  been  so 
merciful  unto  me,  as  to  spare  me  to  behold  this 
joyful  day!  And  I  acknowledge  that  thou  hast 
dealt  as  wonderfully  and  as  mercifully  with  me. 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


245 


as  thou  didst  with  thy  true  and  faithful  servant 
Daniel,  thy  Prophet,  whom  thou  delivercdst  out 
of  the  den,  from  the  cruelty  of  the  greedy  and 
raging  lions.  Even  so  was  I  overwhelmed,  and 
only  by  thee  delivered.  To  thee,  therefore,  only, 
be  thanks,  honour,  and  praise,  for  ever.  Amen!" 

St.  Paul's  Cross  was  supplied  with  a  safe 
preacher  in  the  person  of  Dr.  Bill,  the  Queen's 
chaplain  and  almoner.  The  necessity  of  this 
precaution  appeared  when  White,  the  Bishop  of 
Winchester,  preached  the  late  Queen's  funeral 
sermon.  He  extolled  her  because,  having  found 
the  realm  poisoned  with  heresy,  she  had  purged 
it;  and  "remembering  herself  to  be  a  member 
of  Christ's  Church,  refused  to  write  herself  head 
thereof.  To  be  born  in  Christ's  Church,"  he 
said,  "  and  not  abide  therein  is  horrible,  exe- 
crable, cursed,  and  damnable  ...  I  was  regene- 
rate, and,  by  a  solemn  vow,  became  a  member 
of  Christ's  Catholic  Church  ;  and  have  since 
divided  myself  from  the  unity  thereof,  and  am 
become  a  member  of  the  new  Church  of  Ge- 
neva. Reformed  by  penance,  I  am  now  relapsed 
again  to  sin.  Mark  my  end...  and  what  shall 
become  of  me  ?  I  shall  in  the  end  bo  damned 
everlastingly."  Touching  those  who  died  in  he- 
resy, it  "  shall  suffice  me  to  say,"  said  he,  "  and 
you  to  know,  that  they  be  in  pain,  in  dolour,  in 
ire,  in  fire,  in  darkness  and  horror;  the  indigna- 


246 


ELIZABETH. 


tion,  the  scourge,  the  vengeance  of  God,  with 
confusion  and  damnation  everlasting,  is  poured 
on  them  :  neither  have  they  qualification  of  pain, 
nor  intermission  of  time,  nor  hope  of  end."  And, 
speaking  of  the  duty  of  those  in  his  calling,  he 
said,  "Being  by  God  appointed  to  keep  watch 
and  ward  upon  the  walls,  if  they  see  the  wolf 
toward  the  flock,  (as  at  this  present  I  warn  you 
the  wolves  be  coming  out  of  Geneva,  and  other 
places  of  Germany,  and  have  sent  their  books 
before,  full  of  pestilent  doctrines,  blasphemy,  and 
heresy,  to  infect  the  people,)  ...  if  the  Bishops, 
I  say,  and  the  ministers,  in  this  case,  should  not 
give  warning,  neither  withstand  and  resist,  but, 
for  fear  or  flattery  with  the  world,  forsake  their 
places,  and  thereby  give  occasion  to  the  wolf  to 
enter,  then  should  the  blood  of  the  people  be 
required  at  their  hands." 

The  Bishop  was  ordered  to  keep  his  house  for 
the  offence  he  had  given  by  this  sermon.  The 
restraint  was  not  continued  long ;  and  having 
been  brought  before  the  Lords  of  the  Council, 
and  admonished  by  them,  he  was  released.  The 
cruelties  of  the  preceding  reign  were  regarded 
with  abhorrence  by  all,  except  those  who  had 
been  instrumental  in  them;  and,  from  principle 
not  less  than  policy,  Elizabeth  had  resolved  to 
proceed  mildly  and  temperately,  as  well  as 
firmly,  in  establishing  the  reformed  church.  For 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


247 


this  reason,  and  because  the  Romanists  preached 
seditiously,  and  the  eager  Reformers  encouraged 
by  their  discourses  the  disposition  of  the  people 
to  outrun  the  law,  and  demolish  images  and  altars, 
all  preaching  was  forbidden  for  a  time  ;  and  if  any 
should  be  bold  enough  to  disregard  the  proclama- 
tion, all  persons  were  forbidden  to  hear  them,  till 
the  Queen  and  the  three  estates  in  Parliament 
should  have  consulted  for  the  reconcilement  of 
matters  of  religion. 

When  the  Bill  for  restoring  the  supremacy  to 
the  Crown  was  debated  in  Parliament,  it  was 
opposed  by  the  Bishops.  Heath  said,  that  as 
concerning  temporal  government,  the  House 
could  give  her  Highness  no  further  authority 
than  she  already  had  by  right  and  inheritance, 
not  by  their  gift,  but  by  the  appointment  of 
God,  she  being  their  sovereign  Lord  and  Lady, 
their  King  and  Queen,  their  Emperor  and  Em- 
press. But  spiritual  government  they  could  not 
grant,  neither  could  she  receive.  "  If,"  said  he, 
"  by  relinquishing  the  See  of  Rome,  there  were 
none  other  matter  than  a  withdrawing  of  our 
obedience  from  the  Pope's  person,  Paul  IV., 
which  hath  declared  himself  to  be  a  very  austere 
stern  father  unto  us  ever  since  his  first  entrance 
into  Peter's  chair,  then  the  cause  were  not  of 
such  great  importance but  by  forsaking  that 
See,  we  must  forsake  the  unity  of  Christ's  Church, 


248 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap. 


and  by  leaping  out  of  Peter's  ship,  hazard  our- 
selves to  be  overwhelmed  and  drowned  in  the 
waters  of  schism,  sects,  and  divisions."  The 
Bishop  of  Chester,  speaking  upon  the  same  sub- 
ject, asked  of  whom  those  men,  who  in  this  and 
other  points  dissented  from  the  Catholic  Church, 
learned  their  doctrine  ?  "  They  must  needs  an- 
swer," said  he,  "  that  they  learned  it  of  the  Ger- 
mans. Of  whom  did  the  Germans  learn  it?  Of 
Luther.  Well,  then,  of  whom  did  Luther  learn 
it  ?  He  shall  answer  himself :  he  saith,  that  such 
things  as  he  teacheth  against  the  Mass  and  the 
blessed  sacrament  of  the  Altar,  he  learned  of 
Satan  the  Devil,  at  whose  hands  it  is  like  he  did 
also  receive  the  rest  of  his  doctrines ...  So  that 
we  may  be  bold  to  stand  in  our  doctrine  against 
our  adversaries,  seeing  that  theirs  is  not  yet  fifty 
years  old,  and  ours  above  fifteen  hundred.  They 
have,  for  authority  and  commendation  of  their 
religion,  Luther  and  his  schoolmaster  before- 
mentioned;  we  have  for  ours,  St.  Peter  and  his 
master  Christ."  The  same  prelate  made  an  un- 
lucky speech  against  the  Bill  for  restoring  the 
reformed  Liturgy.  "  Christian  charity,"  he  said, 
"  was  taken  away  by  it,  in  that  the  unity  of  the 
Church  was  broken;"  and,  proceeding  more  un- 
happily, he  said,  "It  is  no  money  matter,  but  a 
matter  of  inheritance  . . .  yea,  a  matter  touching 
ife  and  death  ;  and  damnation  dependeth  upon 


ELIZABETH. 


249 


it.  Here  is  it  set  before  us,  as  the  Scripture 
saith,  Life  and  death,  fire  and  water.  If  we  put 
our  hand  into  the  one,  we  shall  live  ;  if  it  take 
hold  of  the  other,  we  shall  die.  Now,  to  discern 
which  is  life,  and  which  is  death,  which  is  fire 
that  will  burn,  and  which  is  water  that  will  re- 
fresh and  comfort  us,  is  a  great  matter,  and  not 
easily  perceived  of  every  man."  It  required  a 
front  of  brass  to  have  ventured  upon  such  a  me- 
taphor, while  the  autos-da-fe  of  the  Marian  per- 
secution were  fresh  in  remembrance. 

The  infamous  persecutor,  Story,  went  beyond 
this  in  the  House  of  Commons.  He  boasted  of 
the  part  he  had  taken,  related  with  exultation 
how  he  had  thrown  a  fagot  in  the  face  of  an  ear- 
wig, as  he  called  him,  who  was  singing  psalms  at 
the  stake,  and  how  he  had  thrust  a  thornbush 
under  his  feet  to  prick  him:  wished  that  he  had 
done  more ;  and  said  he  only  regretted  that  they 
should  have  laboured  at  the  young  and  little 
twigs,  when  they  ought  to  have  struck  at  the 
root, ...  words  by  which  it  was  understood  that 
he  meant  the  Queen.  Even  this  treasonable  in- 
solence did  not  provoke  the  Government  io  de- 
part from  the  temperate  course  which  it  had  laid 
down.  A  public  disputation  was  appointed,  not, 
as  in  Mary's  reign,  to  be  concluded  by  burning 
those  who  differed  in  opinion  from  the  ruling 
party,  but  with  full  liberty  of  speech,  and  perfect 


250 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap. 


safety,  for  the  Romish  disputants.  Upon  Heath's 
motion,  the  Queen  ordered  that  it  should  be  ma- 
naged in  writing,  as  the  best  means  for  avoiding 
vain  altercation:  but  when  it  came  to  the  point, 
the  Romanists,  upon  some  difference  concerning 
the  manner  of  disputing,  refused  to  dispute  at 
all.  For  this  contempt  of  the  Privy  Council,  in 
whose  presence  they  had  met,  they  were  fined. 
The  truth  was,  that  if  they  had  been  more  con- 
fident in  their  own  cause,  they  deemed  it  not 
allowable  to  bring  such  points  in  question  before 
such  judges.  They  seem  to  have  presumed  upon 
the  insecurity  of  the  Queen's  government,  and 
upon  her  tolerant  disposition.  In  the  latter  they 
were  not  deceived.  Odious  as  the  persecutors 
were,  and  in  many  respects  amenable  to  the  laws, 
she  suffered  no  vindictive  measures  to  be  taken 
against  them ;  and  the  strongest  mark  which  she 
manifested  of  her  own  displeasure,  was  in  refusing 
to  let  Bonner  kiss  her  hand.  The  Archbishop  of 
York  had  refused  to  perform  the  ceremony  of 
crowning  her,  because  she  forbade  the  host  to  be 
elevated  in  her  presence  ;  it  was  his  office,  Cardi- 
nal Pole  having  died  a  few  hours  after  Queen 
Mary.  All  the  other  Bishops,  in  like  manner, 
refused,  except  Oglethorpe,  of  Carlisle,  giving  in 
this  the  most  audacious  proof  of  determined  diso- 
bedience. 

But  Elizabeth  did  not  suffer  herself  ta  be 


XT.] 


ELIZABETH. 


251 


moved,  even  by  a  just  resentment,  from  the 
course  of  conduct  which  she  thought  best.  When 
she  was  advised  to  punish  these  dangerous  sub- 
jects, she  replied,  "  Let  us  not  follow  our  sister's 
example,  but  rather  show  that  our  reformation 
tendeth  to  peace,  and  not  to  cruelty."  She  sum- 
moned them,  with  the  other  heads  of  the  Clergy, 
and  required  them,  in  pursuance  of  the  laws  re- 
cently made  for  religion,  and  for  restoring  to  the 
Crown  its  ancient  right  of  supremacy,  to  take 
into  serious  consideration  the  affairs  of  the 
Church,  and  expel  from  it  all  schisms  and  super- 
stitions. Heath  answered,  in  the  name  of  his 
brethren,  by  entreating  her  to  call  to  mind  the 
covenants  between  her  sister  and  the  holy  See, 
wherein  she  had  promised  to  depress,  heresy, 
binding  herself  and  her  successors,  and  her  king- 
dom, to  accomplish  it,  under  pain  of  perpetual 
ignominy  and  a  curse.  The  Queen  made  answer, 
that  it  lay  not  in  her  sister's  power  to  bind  her 
and  her  realms  to  an  usurped  authority  ;  that  as 
Joshua  declared,  I  and  my  house  will  serve  the 
Lord,  so  she  and  her  realm  were  resolved  to 
serve  him ;  and  that  she  would  esteem  all  her 
subjects  as  enemies  to  God  and  to  her,  who 
should  own  the  usurped  power  of  the  Bishop  of 
Rome.  Without  delay  she  then  deprived  the 
refractory  Bishops,  Kitchen  of  Landaff"  being  the 
only  one  who  conformed.    There  were  but  four- 


'252 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap. 


teen  living,  many  having  died  in  the  great  mortali- 
ty at  the  close  of  the  preceding  feign.  The 
survivors  deceived  themselves.  They  thought 
they  had  done  the  work  of  persecution  so  effec- 
tually, by  taking  off  the  heads  of  the  reformed 
Clergy,  that  the  Queen  could  not  displace  them, 
because  she  could  not  possibly  supply  their 
places.  They  knew  not  how  many  most  able 
and  excellent  men  had  escaped  their  vengeance, 
and  employed  their  years  of  exile  or  concealment 
in  the  severe  study  of  divinity :  "  men,"  says  a 
writer  of  that  age,  "  who,  coming  forth  of  afflic- 
tion and  evils,  were  looked  upon  with  contempt 
by  the  Romanists;  simple  men,  without  pontifical 
ornaments  to  set  them  out,  but  eminent  for  the  in- 
tegrity of  their  lives,  the  gravity  of  their  beha- 
viour, the  greatness  of  their  spirits,  and  finally,  for 
their  diligent  search  and  accurate  knowledge  of 
Scripture,  councils,  orthodox  fathers,  and  all  eccle- 
siastical antiquity." 

The  vacant  sees  were  filled  by  Parker,  Grindal, 
Cox,  Sands,  Jewel,  Parkhurst,  Pilkington,  and 
others;  men  worthy  to  be  held  in  lasting  remem- 
brance and  honour,  who  had  either  escaped, 
during  the  IVhrian  persecution,  by  retiring  to  the 
Continent,  or  secreting  themselves  at  home.  It 
had  been  one  chief  cause  of  consolation  to  the 
martyrs,  to  think  that  so  many  of  their  brethren 
were  safe,  reserved,  as  they  doubted  not.  for  thi? 


ELIZABETH. 


253 


great  work.  "Since  there  be  in  those  parts  with 
you,  of  students  and  ministers  so  good  a  number," 
said  Ridley,  writing  from  his  prison  to  Grindal 
at  Frankfort,  "  now,  therefore,  care  you  not  for 
us,  otherwise  than  to  wish  that  God's  glory  may 
be  set  forth  by  us.  For  whensoever  God  shall 
call  us  home,  (as  we  look  daily  for  none  other ; 
but  when  it  shall  please  God  to  say,  Come!)  you, 
blessed  be  God,  are  enow,  through  his  aid,  to 
light  and  set  up  again  the  lantern  of  his  word  in 
England."  Gardiner  had  exerted  his  utmost  vig- 
ilance to  cut  off  all  their  supplies  from  home, 
vowing  that  he  would  make  them  eat  their  own 
nails  for  very  hunger,  and  then  feed  on  their  fin- 
ger's ends.  But  this  was  more  than  he  was  able 
to  effect.  They  still  communicated  with  their 
friends,  and  received  assistance  from  them;  and 
they  met  with  exemplary  hospitality  in  the  re- 
formed countries,  more  especially  in  Switzerland. 
Ridley's  prophetic  hope  was  now  fulfilled.  Three 
of  the  Protestant  bishops  returned  from  exile ; 
. .  Barlow,  who,  having  been  one  of  the  first  and 
ablest  writers  in  this  country  against  the  Luther- 
ans, saw  reason  afterwards  to  adopt  their  tenets 
in  all  things  reasonable,  and  remained  constant 
to  them  through  evil  and  through  good  ;  Scory, 
and  good  old  Miles  Coverdale.  By  their  hands 
Parker  was  consecrated  Archbishop  of  Canter- 
bury.    This  excellent  Prelate  had  been  Chap- 


254 


PARKER 


[chap. 


lain  to  Queen  Anne  Boleyne,  who,  a  little  be- 
fore her  death,  particularly  commended  her  daugh- 
ter Elizabeth  to  his  care,  "  that  she  might  not 
want  his  pious  and  wise  counsel."  His  religious 
opinions  he  had  imbibed  from  Bilney  and  Barnes ; 
and  his  exemplary  courage  had  been  manifested 
during  the  Norfolk  rebellion ;  when,  at  the  im- 
minent risk  of  his  life,  he  preached  to  the  re- 
bels, from  their  own  Oak  of  Reformation,  upon 
the  guilt  and  madness  of  their  proceedings. 
Ridley,  in  inviting  him  to  preach  at  St.  Paul's 
Cross,  (the  post  of  honour  in  those  days,)  thus 
touched  upon  his  qualifications:  "I  may  have,  if 
I  would  call  without  any  choice,  enow :  but  in 
some,  alas,  I  desire  more  learning;  in  some  a 
better  judgement ;  in  some  more  virtue  and  godly 
conversation;  and  in  some  more  soberness  and 
discretion.  And  he  in  whom  all  these  do  meet, 
shall  not  do  well  to  refuse,  in  my  judgement,  to 
serve  God  in  that  place."  During  Mary's  reign 
he  had  been  deprived  of  his  preferments,  and  was 
in  great  personal  danger,  living  in  concealment ; 
strict  search  was  made  for  him ;  and,  in  flying  by 
night,  he  received  a  hurt  by  a  fall  from  his  horse, 
from  which  he  never  thoroughly  recovered.  He 
was  now  in  the  fifty-fourth  year  of  his  age,  when 
Cecil  and  Sir  Nicolas  Bacon  fixed  upon  him  as 
the  fittest  man  for  the  Primacy  at  this  important 
time.    Parker,  with  unaffected  humility,  sought 


XV.] 


PARKER. 


255 


to  decline  this  great  promotion,  pleading,  among 
other  reasons  for  excuse,  the  injury  which  he  had 
received  in  his  fall.  He  told  Bacon,  on  whose 
friendship  he  relied,  that  his  wish  was,  to  be  en- 
abled, by  the  revenue  of  some  prebend  without 
charge  of  cure,  to  occupy  himself  in  dispensing 
God's  word  among  the  poor  simple  strayed 
sheep  of  God's  fold  in  poor  destitute  parishes  and 
cures;  more  meet,  he  said,  for  his  decayed  voice 
and  small  quality,  than  in  theatrical  and  great  au- 
diences. Or  that  he  might  be  stationed  in  the 
university,  the  state  whereof  was  miserable,  and 
where,  if  any  where,  he  might  perhaps  do  service, 
having  long  acquaintance  and  some  experience  in 
its  affairs.  And  he  entreated  Bacon  either  to 
help  that  he  might  be  quite  forgotten,  or  so  ap- 
pointed, as  not  to  be  entangled  with  the  concourse 
of  the  world  in  any  public  state  of  living.  He 
prayed  that  their  choice  might  neither  light  on  an 
arrogant  man,  nor  a  faint-hearted,  nor  a  covetous 
one:  the  first,  he  said,  would  sit  in  his  own  light, 
and  discourage  his  fellows ;  the  second  would  be 
too  weak  to  commune  with  the  adversaries,  who 
would  be  the  stouter  upon  his  pusillanimity;  and 
the  third  would  not  be  worth  his  bread."  But 
Elizabeth's  wise  ministers  knew  Parker's  worth, 
and  would  admit  of  no  excuse. 

The  Lord  Keeper  Bacon,  at  the  dissolution  of 
the  first  Parliament,  spoke  of  the  enemies  to  the 


256 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap. 


religion  now  re-established  :  "  Among  these,"  he 
said,  "  he  comprehended  as  well  those  that  were 
too  swift,  as  those  that  were  too  slow  ;  those  that 
went  before  the  law,  or  behind  the  law,  as  those 
who  would  not  follow :  for  good  government 
could  not  be  where  obedience  failed,  and  both 
these  alike  broke  the  rule  of  obedience.  These 
were  they  that,  in  all  likelihood,  would  be  the  be- 
ginners and  maintainers  of  factions  and  sects  ; 
the  very  mothers  and  nurses  of  all  seditions  and 
tumults.  Of  these,  therefore,  great  heed  should 
be  taken ;  and  upon  their  being  found,  sharp  and 
severe  corrections  imposed,  according  to  the  order 
of  law;  and  that  without  respect  of  persons,  as 
upon  the  greatest  adversaries  to  unity  and  con- 
cord, without  which  no  commonwealth  could 
long  endure."  The  immediate  danger  was  from 
the  Romanists.  But  their  policy  at  this  time  ac- 
corded, fortunately,  with  the  views  of  the  Gov- 
ernment ;  for  when  it  was  perceived  how  well  and 
easily  the  places  of  the  deposed  Bishops  had  been 
supplied,  the  party  changed  their  system,  and  de- 
termined to  retain  what  benefices  they  held,  at 
the  expense  of  outward  conformity,  thinking  the 
best  service  which  they  could  render  to  the  Papal 
cause,  was  to  keep  possession  of  their  posts,  in 
the  hope  and  expectation  of  better  times.  The 
double  purpose  would  thus  be  answered,  of  keep- 
ing Protestant    ministers  out,  and  secretly  fos- 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


257 


tering  in  their  parishioners  a  predilection  for  the 
old  superstitions  ;  and  their  policy  was  by  this  means 
reconciled  with  their  interest. 

With  such  unanimity  did  they  act  upon  this 
deceitful  system,  that  of  9400  beneficed  Clergy, 
only  177  resigned  their  preferment,  rather  than 
acknowledge  the  Queen's  supremacy.  So  far  as 
the  great  majority  were  influenced  by  selfish 
considerations,  their  object  was  answered,  but 
as  a  politic  measure,  never  were  men  more  egre- 
giously  mistaken ;  and  this  they  discovered  when 
too  late.  It  was  a  most  important  object  for 
Government  to  bring  about  the  great  change  in 
the  quietest  manner,  with  as  little  injury  as  pos- 
sible to  individuals,  and  as  little  offence  to  the 
feelings,  and  even  prejudices,  of  the  people.  For 
this  reason,  the  supplication,  saying  "  from  the 
tyranny  of  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  and  all  his  de- 
testable enormities,  good  Lord,  deliver  us !" 
which  was  part  of  the  Litany  in  the  Liturgy  of 
Edward's  reign,  was  expunged  now.  For  the 
same  reason,  it  was  enjoined,  that  the  sacra- 
mental bread  should  be  continued  in  the  form  of 
wafers ;  and  the  language  of  the  article  which 
affirmed  a  real  presence,  was  so  framed  as  to 
allow  latitude  of  belief  for  those  who  were  per- 
suaded of  an  exclusive  one.  The  effect  was  an 
almost  general  conformity,  on  the  part  of  the 
Romanists,  without  doubt  or  scruple,  concerning 

VOL.  II.  17 


258 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap. 


the  propriety  of  so  conforming;  till  to  their  own 
great  misfortune,  and  that  of  the  country,  they 
were  required  by  the  Papal  Court  to  pursue  a  dif- 
ferent course. 

Heath,  Bonner,  Turberville,  and  two  of  the 
other  deprived  Bishops,  thought  it  their  duty  to 
address  a  letter  to  the  Queen,  entreating  her  to 
listen  to  them,  rather  than  to  those  evil  counsel- 
lors who  were  leading  her  astray.  Her  ances- 
tors, they  reminded  her,  had  duly  and  reverently 
observed  the  ancient  Catholic  faith,  till  by  here- 
tical and  schismatical  advisers,  her  father  was 
first  withdrawn,  and  then  her  brother;  "after 
whose  decease,"  said  they,  "  your  virtuous  sister, 
Queen  Mary,  of  happy  memory,  succeeded: 
who,  being  troubled  in  conscience  with  what  her 
father's  and  her  brother's  advisers  had  caused 
them  to  do,  most  piously  restored  the  Catholic 
faith,  by  establishing  the  same  again ;  as  also  by 
extinguishing  the  schisms  and  heresies,  which  at 
that  time  began  to  flame  over  her  territories,  for 
which  God  poured  out  his  wrath  upon  most  of 
the  malefactors  and  misleaders  of  the  nation." 
Elizabeth  replied  to  this  letter  instantly;  she 
denied  their  assertion  that  Christianity  had  been 
first  planted  in  this  kingdom  by  the  Romish 
Church ;  and  she  answered  the  remarks  upon 
her  father's  having  listened  to  heretical  advisers, 
by  cutting  personalities.     "  Who.  we  pray,  ad- 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


259 


vised  him  more,  or  flattered  him,  than  you,  good 
Mr.  Heath,  when  you  were  Bishop  of  Rochester? 
And  than  you,  Mr.  Bonner,  when  you  were 
Archdeacon?  And  you,  Mr.  Turberville  ?  Nay, 
farther,  who  was  more  an  adviser  of  our  father, 
than  your  great  Stephen  Gardiner  when  he  lived? 
Recollect :  was  it  our  sister's  conscience  made 
her  so  averse  to  our  father's  and  brother's  actions, 
as  to  undo  what  they  had  perfected  ?  Or  was  it 
not  you,  or  such  like  advisers,  that  dissuaded  her, 
and  stirred  her  up  against  us,  and  other  of  her 
subjects  ?  We  give  you  warning,"  she  con- 
cluded, "  that  for  the  future,  we  hear  no  more  of 
this  kind,  lest  you  provoke  us  to  execute  those 
penalties  enacted  for  the  punishment  of  our  re- 
sisters,  which  out  of  our  clemency  we  have  for- 
born." 

The  Queen  was  contented  with  thus  repri- 
manding them,  though  the  manner  in  which  they 
spoke  of  the  atrocities  of  the  last  reign  might 
well  have  justified  some  stronger  mark  of  dis- 
pleasure. But  when  it  appeared  that  some  of 
these  Bishops  preached  against  the  new  order  of 
things,  and  encouraged  a  seditious  spirit  in  those 
who  flocked  to  them,  (White  and  Watson  ven- 
turing even  to  threaten  the  Queen  with  excom- 
munication,) it  was  found  necessary  to  place  them 
under  some  degree  of  restraint.  Heath,  after  a 
short  confinement  in  the  Tower,  was  allowed  to 
17 


260 


ELIZABETH. 


reside  upon  his  own  lordship  of  Cobham,  merely 
upon  giving  security  that  he  would  not  interfere 
with  state  affairs,  or  interrupt  the  laws.  Eliza- 
beth always  esteemed  him,  and  sometimes  visited 
him  in  his  old  age.  Oglethorpe  died  almost  im- 
mediately after  the  coronation.  Tonstal  and 
Thirlby  were  both  committed  to  the  gentle  cus- 
tody of  Parker;  instead  of  being  confined  in  his 
coal-house,  they  lived  at  his  table,  and  were 
treated  by  him  as  honourable  guests.  Shame, 
rather  than  conviction,  seems  to  have  kept  them 
from  conforming ;  for  Tonstal  was  avowedly  more 
than  half  a  Protestant,  and  Thirlby  had  acted 
with  better  faith,  when  he  co-operated  with 
Cranmer,  than  when  Bonner  was  his  bloody 
associate.  Bonner  was  committed  to  the  Mar- 
shalsea,  where  he  had  the  use  of  the  garden  and 
orchards,  and  lived  as  he  liked,  without  any  other 
privation  than  that  of  liberty  ;  for  though  he  was 
allowed  to  go  abroad,  he  dared  not,  because  of 
the  hatred  of  the  people.  He  never  betrayed  the 
slightest  shame  or  compunction  for  the  cruelties 
which  he  had  committed,  but  maintained  to  the 
last,  the  same  coarse  and  insolent  temper;  in- 
deed, it  was  rumoured  and  believed,  that  he 
looked  for  no  life  but  the  present,  and  therefore 
had  no  hope  or  fear  beyond  it.  Three  of  the  ex- 
bishops  withdrew  to  the  continent.  The  others 
lived  unmolested,  and  died  at  large,  except  Wat- 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


261 


son,  always  a  morose,  and  latterly  a  dangerous 
man,  whom  it  was  deemed  necessary  to  commit 
to  close  prison,  when  the  Romanists  began  their 
treasonable  practices. 

It  was  now  the  Romanists'  turn  to  plead  con- 
science, and  argue  that  gentle  usage  ought  to  be 
afforded  to  those  whose  only  offence  consisted  in 
a  difference  of  opinion   upon  religious  subjects. 
The  Emperor,  and  other  Catholic  princes,  wrote 
to  the  Queen  in  behalf  of  the  ejected  Clergy, 
requesting  that  they  might  be  mercifully  dealt 
withal,  and  that  churches  might  be  allowed  to 
the  Papists  in  all  the  cities   an&  chief  towns. 
The  way  to  have  obtained  this,  would  have  been 
to  have  given  an  example  in  their  own  dominions 
of  the  clemency  and  toleration  which  they  re- 
quired.   Elizabeth  answered,  that  though  these 
Popish  Clergy  insolently  and  openly  opposed  the 
laws  and  the   peace  of  the  realm,   and  wilfully 
rejected  the  doctrines  which  they  themselves  had 
preached  under  the   Kings  Henry  and  Edward, 
she  was  dealing  and  would  deal  favourably  with 
them;   albeit  not   without  some  offence  to  her 
subjects,  seeing  how  cruelly  these  men  have  acted 
toward  the  Protestants  in  her  sister's  reign.  But 
to  grant  them  churches  would  be  against  the 
laws  of  her  Parliament,  and  highly  dangerous  to 
the  state  of  her  kingdom.    It  would  be  to  sow 
various  religions  in  the  realm,  to  distract  good 


262 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap . 


people's  minds,  to  cherish  parties  and  factions, 
and  to  disturb  religion  and  the  commonwealth  in 
that  quiet  state  wherein  it  then  was;...  a  thing 
evil  in  itself,  and  in  example  worse  ;  to  her  own 
good  subjects  hurtful,  and  neither  greatly  com- 
modious nor  safe  unto  those  for  whom  it  was 
asked. 

The  Queen  had  recalled  the  English  resident 
from  Rome,  but  the  Pope  ordered  him,  on  pain 
of  excommunication,  not  to  leave  the  city,  and 
to  lake  upon  himself  the  government  of  the  Eng- 
lish hospital  there.  The  order  was  believed  to 
be  in  conformity  with  the  resident's  wishes,  and 
given  to  prevent  him  from  apprizing  his  go- 
vernment of  the  secret  practices  of  the  French 
against  Elizabeth.  Pius  IV.  soon  succeeded  to 
the  Papacy,  and  on  his  accession,  despatched  a 
nuncio  to  England  with  secret  instructions,  and 
a  conciliatory  letter.  He  entreated  the  Queen, 
as  his  most  dear  daughter,  that,  rejecting  those 
counsellors,  who  loved  themselves,  not  her,  and 
served  their  own  designs,  she  would  take  the 
fear  of  God  to  counsel,  and  acknowledge  the 
time  of  her  visitation.  In  that  case,  he  pro- 
mised to  confirm  her  royal  dignity,  according  to 
the  authority  and  functions  committed  to  him  by 
God;  told  her  that  he  would  receive  her  with 
the  same  love,  honour,  and  rejoicings,  as  the 
father  in  the  Gospel  had  received  the  prodigai 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


263 


son ;  and  that  by  so  doing,  she  would  not  only  fill 
the  whole  church  with  rejoicings,  but  even  heaven 
itself.  The  secret  articles  were  reported  to  be, 
that  he  would  annul  the  sentence  against  her  mo- 
ther's marriage,  allow  the  use  of  the  cup  to  the 
English,  and  confirm  the  English  liturgy.  But 
Elizabeth  had  chosen  the  better  part;  and  the 
nuncio,  while  on  his  way,  was  informed  that  he 
could  not  be  permitted  to  set  foot  in  England. 

The  Reformation  had  divided  Europe  into  two 
great  parties,  but  providentially  at  this  time 
there  was  a  rooted  enmity  between  the  two  great 
Catholic  kingdoms  of  France  and  Spain ;  and 
this  contributed  essentially  to  Elizabeth's  preser- 
vation during  the  first  years  of  her  reign.  Mary, 
the  Queen  of  Scotland,  and,  at  that  time,  wife  of 
the  Dauphin,  always  a  dangerous  rival,  would 
then  have  been  a  most  formidable  one,  if  Eliza- 
beth had  not  been  both  secretly  and  openly  sup- 
ported by  the  Spanish  court.  The  King  of 
France  claimed  the  kingdom  for  his  son,  in 
Mary's  right ;  they  quartered  the  arms  of  Eng- 
land with  those  of  Scotland  and  France,  and 
urged  the  Pope  to  pronounce  Elizabeth  illegiti- 
mate and  heretical,  and  to  declare  Mary  the  law- 
ful Queen.  Philip's  influence  prevented  this. 
Henri's  death  delivered  England  from  a  treache- 
rous and  powerful  enemy;  the  French,  by  their 
impolitic  conduct   in   Scotland,  gave  Elizabeth 


264 


ELIZABETH. 


[("HAP. 


just  cause  for  taking  part  with  the  Protestants  in 
that  country;  and  when  Mary,  being  lef<  a  wi- 
dow, returned  there,  her  own  situation  was  so 
beset  with  difficulties  and  troubles,  that  she  had 
little  power,  and  less  leisure,  for  tampering  with 
the  English  mal-contents.  But  from  the  time 
when  Mary,  seeking  an  asylum  in  England,  was 
made  a  prisoner  there,  she  became  a  point  of 
hope,  as  well  as  an  object  of  commiseration,  to 
the  English  Catholics ;  and  she  was  more  formi- 
dable to  Elizabeth  in  her  state  of  bondage,  than 
if  she  had  continued  Queen  of  France. 

Two  persons  so  circumstanced  with  regard  to 
each  other,  as  the  Queens  of  England  and  Scot- 
land, must  have  been  mortal  enemies,  unless  they 
had  been  women  of  saintly  piety  and  virtue. 
Both  were  endowed  with  extraordinary  talents, 
and  in  the  natural  dispositions  of  both,  it  is  pro- 
bable that  the  better  qualities  greatly  prepon- 
derated. But  they  were  so  situated,  that  it  was 
scarcely  possible  for  them  to  think  or  act  justly 
towards  each  other.  Mary,  as  a  Catholic,  be- 
lieved Elizabeth  to  be  illegitimate,  and  therefore 
thought  herself  entitled  to  the  crown  of  England. 
The  Romanists,  and  especially  the  powerful 
family  of  the  Guises,  to  which  she  was  related, 
acted  openly  upon  the  principle,  that  all  mea- 
sures were  allowable  against  the  enemies  of  the 
Romish  Church :  and  even  if  this  had  not  been 


XV.] 


MARY,  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS. 


265 


the  system  of  the  Romanists  in  that  age,  Mary- 
might  have  felt  herself  justified  in  using  any 
means  for  delivering  herself  from  an  unjust  cap- 
tivity. If  we  may  not  infer  from  history  that  the 
most  generous  policy  is  in  all  cases  the  best,  this 
at  least  may  be  affirmed,  that  in  a  state  of  society, 
where  right  principles  of  morality  are  acknow- 
ledged, and  public  opinion  is  of  any  weight,  no 
policy  which  has  even  the  semblance  of  injustice 
can  be  good.  Elizabeth  would  have  better  con- 
sulted her  own  safety  and  honour  by  sending  Mary 
to  France,  than  by  detaining  her  in  durance.  Yet 
it  must  be  remembered,  that  many  circumstances 
seemed  to  render  her  detention  essential  for  the 
welfare  both  of  her  own  kingdom  and  this  ;  that 
Burleigh,  by  whose  advice  Elizabeth  acted,  was 
not  only  a  profound  statesman,  but  also  a  vir- 
tuous and  religious  man ;  and  that  the  accession 
of  Mary  to  the  English  throne  would  certainly 
have  been  followed  by  a  second  Marian  persecu- 
tion* 

The  hopes  of  the  English  Romanists  for  what 
they  called  a  golden  day,  were  kept  up  by  false 
prophecies,  and  by  the  intrigues  both  of  the 

*  Hall,  a  conforming  Papist,  who  was  ejected  from  the 
wardenship  of  Merton  College,  in  1562,  writes  thus  to  one  of 
his  Catholic  friends  abroad  : — "  Frigent  apud  nos  hceretici  ;  sed 
spero  eos  aliquando  fervescere,  sicut  olim  vidians  archih(zreticos 
in  fossi,  HIS,  suburbans,  ubi  Vulcano  traditi  foerunt" 


266 


PIUS  V. 


[chap. 


French  and  Spaniards.  An  insurrection,  in  which 
the  Scotch  Catholics  were  to  have  joined,  and 
Avhich  Alva  had  promised  to  aid  with  troops 
from  the  Netherlands,  broke  out  in  the  North, 
but  was  easily  suppressed ;  and  the  Pope,  who 
had  hitherto  in  secret  fomented  disaffection  and 
encouraged  plots,  now  openly  called  upon  the 
English  Romanists  to  rebel.  Pius  V.,  the  servant 
of  the  servants  of  God,  "  being,"  he  said,  "  as 
Peter's  successor,  prince  over  all  people,  and  all 
kingdoms,  to  pluck  up,  destroy,  scatter,  consume, 
plant,  and  build,  publicly  excommunicated  Eliza- 
beth, whom  he  called  the  pretended  Queen  of 
England,  and  the  servant  of  wickedness  :  seeing 
(he  said)  that  impieties  and  wicked  actions  were 
multiplied  through  her  instigation,  he  cut  her  off 
as  a  heretic,  and  favourer  of  heretics,  from  the 
unity  of  the  body  of  Christ ;  deprived  her  of  her 
pretended  title  to  the  kingdom,  and  of  all  domi- 
nion, dignity  and  privilege  whatsoever ;  absolved 
all  her  subjects  from  their  allegiance,  forbade 
them  to  obey  her,  or  her  laws;  and  included  all 
who  should  disregard  this  prohibition,  in  the 
same  sentence  of  excommunication."  A  Catho- 
lic publicly  set  up  this  bull  upon  the  Bishop  of 
London's  palace  gates,  in  St.  Paul's  Church-yard, 
and  made  no  attempt  to  escape.  For  this  he 
was  executed  as  a  traitor.    But  the  writers  of 


ELIZABETH. 


267 


his  own  church  extolled  him  as  a  martyr,  and  the 
Pope  who  issued  the  bull  has  been  canonized. 

It  is  certain,  that  the  moderate  Romanists  in 
this  country  disapproved  of  what  the  Pope  had 
done  :  but  it  is  certain  also,  that  it  was  in  the 
spirit  of  the  papal  Church,  and  that  throughout 
the  Roman  Catholic  world  no  voice  was  raised 
against  it.  Hitherto  the  conduct  of  Elizabeth's 
government  toward  the  Romanists  had  been  tole- 
rant and  conciliatory,  in  accord  with  her  own 
feelings,  and  with  those  of  her  statesmen  and 
prelates ;  insomuch,  that  when  the  statute  for 
establishing  the  supremacy  was  past,  whereby 
they  who  refused  the  oath  were  punishable  by 
forfeiture  of  goods  and  chattels  for  the  first  of- 
fence, made  liable  to  the  penalties  of  a  praemunire 
for  the  second,  and  for  the  third,  declared  guilty 
of  high  treason,  it  was  provided,  that  none  but 
those  who  held  ecclesiastical  or  civil  offices  should 
be  required  to  take  it ;  and  the  prelates  were 
privately  instructed  by  Parker,  with  the  know- 
ledge of  Cecil  and  the  Queen,  not  to  offer  the 
oath  a  second  time.  Severer  statutes  were  now 
made  necessary.  It  was  made  treasonable  to 
deny  that  Elizabeth  was  the  lawful  sovereign ; 
to  affirm  that  she  was  an  heretic,  schismatic,  or 
infidel  ;  and  to  procure  or  introduce  bulls  or 
briefs  from  the  Pope.  Still  the  government  con- 
tinued its  forbearance,  till  it  was  compelled  to 


i 


268 


ELIZABETH. 


regard  its  Catholic  subjects  with  suspicion,  and 
treat  them  with  severity  by  the  duty  of  self-pre- 
servation. 

Let  it  be  remembered,  that  the  Romish  Church 
had  abated  none  of  its  pretensions,  and  correct- 
ed none  of  its  abuses.  Its  audacity  was  never 
greater,  its  frauds  never  more  numerous,  its  cru- 
elties never  more  atrocious  than  at  that  time. 
If  the  horrors  of  Queen  Mary's  reign  had  not 
been  fresh  in  remembrance,  the  character  of  that 
bloody  Church  would  have  been  sufficiently  dis- 
played by  the  proceedings  of  the  Spanish  and 
Portuguese  Inquisitions,  then  in  full  activity  ;  and 
by  the  merciless  persecution  which  had  now 
driven  the  Dutch  to  assert  their  liberty  in  arms. 
What  the  Catholics  were  doing  in  those  countries, 
they  had  done  in  this,  and  beyond  all  doubt  would 
eagerly  have  done  again,  if  the  power  had  been 
once  more  in  their  hands.  Persecution  was  their 
duty,  if  they  believed  in  the*ir  own  principles; 
it  was  enjoined  by  their  highest  authority,  that" 
of  a  general  council,  with  the  Pope  at  its  head. 
In  England,  indeed,  they  pleaded  for  toleration, 
saying,  that  the  attempt  to  force  belief  Avas  re- 
pugnant to  all  laws ;  that  no  man  can,  or  ought 
to  be,  constrained  to  take  for  certain  what  he 
holdeth  for  uncertain ;  that,  for  the  love  of  God, 
it  behoved  us  to  forget  and  forgive  all  griefs,  and 
love  one  another ;  and  that  when  all  was  done. 


xv.]   MASSACRE  OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW'S  DAY.  269 


to  this  we  must  come  at  last.  Nothing  could  be 
more  just  than  this  argument,  and  nothing  more 
contrary  to  their  own  practices.  For  they 
avowed  the  principle  of  intolerance  wherever 
they  had  the  power,  and  acted  upon  it  without 
compunction  to  the  utmost  extent.  Nothing  in 
the  Mexican  or  Carthaginian  superstitions,  (the 
two  most  horrible  of  the  heathen  world,)  was 
ever  more  execrable  than  the  persecutions  exer- 
cised in  Elizabeth's  age,  by  the  Romish  Church, 
wherever  it  was  dominant.  The  cruelty  of  Nero 
toward  the  Christians  was  imitated  in  Paris  at  the 
inauguration  of  Henri  II. :  as  a  part  of  the  so- 
lemnity and  of  the  rejoicings,  Protestants  were 
fastened  to  the  stake  in  the  principal  streets,  and 
the  piles  were  kindled  at  such  times,  that  the 
King  might  see  the  martyrs  enveloped  by  the 
flames  in  their  full  force,  at  the  moment  when  he 
should  pass  by !  The  parliament  of  Paris  made 
a  decree,  declaring  it  lawful  to  kill  Hugonots 
wherever  they  could  be  found ;  and  they  ordered 
this  decree  to  be  read  every  Sunday,  in  every 
parish  church.  The  massacre  of  St.  Bartholo- 
mew's day  completed  the  crimes  of  that  guilty 
city,  and  made  the  perfidy  of  the  Romish  Church 
as  notorious  as  its  corruption  and  its  inhumanity. 
The  head  of  Coligny,  after  having  been  pre- 
sented to  the  King  and  the  Queen-mother,  was 
embalmed  and  sent  to  Rome,  that  the  Cardinal 


270 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap. 


of  Lorraine  and  the  Pope  might  have  the  satis- 
faction of  beholding  it.  Public  rejoicings  were 
made  at  Rome  for  this  accursed  event.  A  so- 
lemn service  of  thanksgiving  was  performed,  at 
which  the  Pope  himself  assisted ;  and  medals 
were  struck  in  honour  of  the  most  enormous 
crime  with  which  the  annals  of  the  Christian 
world  had  ever  been  stained.  That  the  blow 
might  be  the  more  fatal  to  the  Protestant  cause, 
the  two  sons  of  the  Elector  Palatine  had  been 
invited  from  Germany ;  and  Leicester  and  Bur- 
leigh, as  the  chief  supporters  of  that  cause,  from 
England  ;  . . .  either  to  be  secured  as  prisoners,  or 
involved  in  the  massacre.  Nor  did  the  machina- 
tions of  the  Guises  end  there ;  with  the  evident 
intention  of  entrapping  Elizabeth  herself,  she 
Avas  solicited  to  meet  the  Queen-mother  either  on 
the  seas,  or  in  the  island  of  Jersey;  a  proposal 
so  gross,  after  such  a  proof  of  the  most  flagitious 
treachery,  that  Burleigh  told  the  French  ambas- 
sador, his  mistress  could  not  have  believed  it 
had  been  made,  if  it  had  not  been  shown  her  in 
the  letter  from  the  Queen-mother  herself.  Upon 
this  occasion,  prayers  were  put  up  in  England, 
not  for  the  persecuted  only,  but  for  the  persecu- 
tors. "  Save  them,  O  merciful  Lord,"  was  the 
language  of  our  church,  "  who  are  as  sheep  ap- 
pointed to  the  slaughter!  Hear  their  cry,  O 
Lord,  and  our  prayers  for  them,  and  for  our- 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


271 


selves.  Deliver  those  that  be  oppressed;  defend 
those  that  be  in  fear  of  cruelty ;  relieve  them 
that  be  in  misery;  and  comfort  all  that  be  in 
sorrow  and  heaviness  ;  that  by  thy  aid  and 
strength  they  and  we  may  obtain  surety  from 
our  enemies,  without  shedding  of  Christian  and 
innocent  blood.  And  for  that,  O  Lord,  thou  hast 
commanded  us  to  pray  for  our  enemies,  we  do 
beseech  thee,  not  only  to  abate  their  pride,  and 
to  stay  the  cruelty  and  fury  of  such  as  either  of 
malice  or  ignorance  do  persecute  them  which  put 
their  trust  in  Thee,  but  also  to  mollify  their  hard 
hearts,  to  open  their  blind  eyes,  and  to  enlighten 
their  ignorant  minds,  that  they  may  see  and  under- 
stand, and  truly  turn  unto  Thee." 

The  disposition  of  the  Government  entirely  ac- 
corded with  this  language.  But  it  was  now  com- 
pelled to  act  with  severity  against  those,  who,  un- 
der the  influence  of  a  religious  principle,  Avere  en- 
gaged in  political  plots  and  treason.  The  Bull 
Papists,  as  those  were  called  who  approved  all  the 
measures  of  the  Papal  Court  against  the  Queen, 
were  undoubtedly  at  first  a  small  minority.  But 
the  Popes  allowed  of  no  half-papists  ;  they  who 
were  not  with  them,  they  considered  as  against 
them  :  and  an  end  therefore  was  put  to  that  occa- 
sional conformity,  whereby  the  great  body  of  the 
Catholics  had  hitherto  satisfied  the  laws,  without 
in  any  degree    compromising   their  principles. 


272 


CATHOLIC  SEMINARIES.  [chap. 


Allen,  one  of  those  Romanists,  who,  preferring 
their  Church  to  their  Country,  had  expatriated 
themselves,  and  who  afterwards  was  raised  to  the 
rank  of  Cardinal,  declared  strongly  against  this 
conforming,  which  he  called  the  very  worst  kind 
of  hypocrisy  ;  and  he  informed  his  English  bre- 
thren, that  the  case  had  been  laid  before  the 
Council  of  Trent,  where  a  select  number  of  Fa- 
thers had  examined  into  it,  and  condemned  the 
practice. 

Had  it  not  been  for  this  interference,  most  of 
the  Catholics  would  insensibly  have  passed  over 
to  the  established  religion;  and  those  who  ad- 
hered to  the  old  faith,  by  continuing  to  deserve 
toleration,  would,  in  no  long  time,  have  obtained 
it.  Allen,  whose  opinion  upon  this  question  un- 
happily prevailed,  was  the  author  of  another  mea- 
sure, not  less  injurious  in  its  effects.  As  he  was 
travelling  to  Rome,  in  company  with  Morgan 
Philips,  who  had  been  his  tutor  at  Oriel,  and 
with  Veudeville,  the  Professor  of  Canon  law  at 
Douay,  the  latter  happened  to  speak  of  a  project 
for  the  relief  of  the  Barbary  slaves;  this  topic  led 
Allen  to  lament  his  own  country,  as  likely  soon 
to  fall  into  a  worse  slavery,  when  the  old  non- 
conforming Priests  of  Queen  Mary's  reign  should 
have  dropt  off;  there  being  neither  provision  nor 
prospect  of  any  to  supply  their  place.  This  led 
him  to  form  the  plan  of  a  seminary,  where  En 


THE  JESUITS. 


273 


lish  youths  might  be  educated  for  the  purpose  of 
serving  the  Catholic  faith  in  their  own  country. 
Philips  subscribed  the  first  money  toward  the 
purchase  of  a  convenient  house ;  and  colleges 
were  successively  established  at  Douay,  Rome, 
Valladolid,  Seville,  and  St.  Omer's ;  and,  in  the 
reign  of  James  I.  at  Madrid,  Louvain,  Liege,  and 
Ghent.  The  Spanish  Court  contributed  largely 
to  their  endowment  and  support,  and  great  re- 
sources were  drawn  from  England,  especially 
from  those  Catholics  who  possessed  abbey  lands. 
Douay  College,  which  was  transplanted  to  Rheims, 
and  in  about  twenty  years  removed  back  to  its  ori- 
ginal place,  was  under  the  management  of  secular 
priests,  Allen  himself  being  the  first  rector.  The 
Jesuits  soon  obtained  the  direction  of  all  the 
others;  and  the  seminaries  proved,  what  they 
were  intended  to  be,  so  many  nurseries  for 
treason. 

The  Jesuits  had  risen  up  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury to  perform  for  the  Papal  Church  the  same 
service  which  the  Mendicant  Orders  had  ren- 
dered in  the  twelfth.  Their  founder,  like  St. 
Francis,  was  in  a  state  of  religious  insanity  when 
he  began  his  career ;  but  he  possessed,  above  all 
other  men,  the  rare  talent  of  detecting  his  own 
deficiencies,  and  remedying  them  by  the  most 
patient  diligence.  More  politic  heads  aided  him 
in  the  construction  of  his  system  :  and  they  suc- 

VOL.  ii.  If? 


274 


THE  JESUITS. 


[chap. 


ceeded  in  forming  a  scheme  perfectly  adapted  to 
the  purpose  for  which  it  was  designed.  Under 
the  appearance,  and  with  the  efficient  unity  and 
strength  of  an  absolute  monarchy,  the  Company 
was  in  reality  always  directed  by  a  few  of  its 
ablest  members.  The  most  vigilant  superinten- 
dence was  exercised  over  all  its  parts,  and  yet,  in 
acting  for  the  general  service,  entire  liberty  was 
allowed  to  individual  talents.  For  this  reason, 
the  Jesuits  were  exempted  from  all  the  stale  and 
burthensome  observances,  wherein  the  other  re- 
ligioners consumed  so  large  a  portion  of  their 
time.  They  admitted  no  person  into  the  society, 
unless  they  perceived  in  him  some  qualities 
which  might  be  advantageously  employed,  and 
in  their  admirable  economy  every  one  found  his 
appropriate  place,  except  the  refractory  and  the 
vicious.  Such  members  were  immediately  ex- 
pelled, ...  the  Company  would  not  be  disturbed 
with  the  trouble  of  punishing,  or  endeavouring 
to  correct  them.  But  where  they  found  that 
devoted  obedience,  which  was  the  prime  quali- 
fication of  a  Jesuit,  there  was  no  variety  of 
human  charactei  from  the  lowest  to  the  loftiest 
intellect,  which  they  did  not  know  how  to  em- 
ploy, and  to  the  best  advantage.  They  had 
domestic  offices  for  the  ignorant  and  lowly :  the 
task  of  education  was  committed  to  expert  and 
patient  scholars:  men  of  learning  and  research 


XV.] 


THE  JESUITS. 


27:) 


and  genius  were  left  to  follow  the  bent  of  their 
own  happy  inclinations  ;  eloquent  members  were 
destined  for  the  pulpit;  and  while  their  politicians 
managed  the  affairs  of  the  society,  and,  by  direct- 
ing the  consciences  of  kings  and  queens,  and 
statesmen,  directed,  in  fact,  the  government  of 
Catholic  kingdoms,  enthusiasts  and  fanatics  were 
despatched  to  preach  the  gospel  among  the 
heathen,  or  to  pervert  the  Protestants.  Some 
went  to  reclaim  the  savages  of  America,  others, 
with  less  success,  to  civilize  the  barbarous 
Abyssinians,  by  reducing  them  to  the  Romish 
Church.  And  they  who  were  ambitious  of  mar- 
trydom  were  ordered  to  Japan,  where  the  slow 
fire  and  the  more  lingering  death  of  the  pit, 
were  to  be  endured;  or  they  went  to  England, 
which  they  called  the  European  Japan,  because, 
going  thither  as  missionaries  of  a  church  which 
had  pronounced  the  Queen  an  heretic  and  an 
usurper,  and  forbidden  all  her  Catholic  subjects 
to  obey  her,  on  pain  of  excommunication,  they 
went  to  form  conspiracies,  and  concert  plans  of 
rebellion,  and  therefore  exposed  themselves  to 
death  as  traitors. 

The  founders  of  this  famous  society  adapted 
their  institution  with  excellent  wisdom  to  the 
circumstances  of  their  age;  but  they  took  the 
principles  of  the  Romish  Church  as  they  found 
them,  and  thus  engaged  in  the  support  and  fur- 
18 


276 


THE  JESUITS. 


therance  of  a  bad  cause  by  wicked  means.  The 
whole  odium  of  those  means  fell  upon  the  Jesuits, 
not  because  they  were  the  more  guilty,  but  be- 
cause they  were  the  most  conspicuous,. . .  the  Pro- 
testants, and  especially  the  English,  looking  only 
at  that  order  which  produced  their  busiest  and 
ablest  enemies;   and  the  Romanists  dexterously 
shifting  upon  an  envied,  and  therefore  a  hated, 
community,  the  reproach  which  properly  belongs 
to  their  Popes,  their  Councils,  and  their  universal 
Church.    In  England,  indeed,  no  other  religion- 
ers were  so  active ;  and  this  was  because  the  ce- 
lebrity of  the  order,  as  had  been  the  case  with 
every  monastic  order  in  its  first  age,  attracted 
to  it  the   most    ardent    and   ambitious  spirits. 
Young  English  Catholics  of  this  temper  eagerly 
took  the  fourth  and  peculiar  vow,  which  placed 
them  as  Missionaries,   at  the    absolute  disposal 
of  their  Old  Man  of  the  Mountain.    The  Popes, 
at  that  time,  had  richly  merited  this  title.  For 
the  principle  of  assassination  was  sanctioned  by 
the  two  most  powerful  of  the  Catholic  Kings, 
and  by  the  head  of  the  Catholic  Church.    It  was 
acted  upon  in  France  and  in  Holland :  rewards 
were  publicly  offered  for  the  murder  of  the  Prince 
of  Orange  ;  and  the  fanatics,  who  undertook  to 
murder  Elizabeth,  were  encouraged  by  a  plenary 
remission  of  sins,  granted  for  this  special  service. 
Against  the  propagandists  of  such  doctrine  as 


XV.] 


CAMPIAN. 


277 


was  contained  in  the  Bull  of  Pius  V.,  and  incul- 
cated in  the  seminaries,  Elizabeth  was  compelled, 
for  self-preservation,  to  proceed  severely.  They 
were  sought  for  and  executed,  not  for  believing  in 
transubstantiation,  nor  for  performing  Mass,  but 
for  teaching  that  the  Queen  of  England  ought  to 
be  deposed ;  that  it  was  lawful  to  kill  her ;  and 
that  all  Catholic  subjects,  who  obeyed  her  com- 
mands, were  cut  off  from  the  communion  of  their 
Church  for  so  doing.  "  The  very  end  and  pur- 
pose of  these  Jesuits  and  seminary  men,"  said 
the  proclamation,  "  was  not  only  to  prepare  sun- 
dry her  Majesty's  subjects,  inclinable  to  disloy- 
alty, to  give  aid  to  foreign  invasions,  and  stir  up 
rebellion,  but  also  (that  most  perilous  is)  to  de- 
prive her  Majesty  (under  whom,  and  by  whose 
provident  government,  with  God's  assistance, 
these  realms  have  been  so  long  and  so  happily 
kept  and  continued  in  great  plenty,  peace,  and 
security)  of  her  life,  crown,  and  dignity."  "  As 
far  as  concerns  our  society,"  said  Campian  the 
Jesuit,  in  an  oration  delivered  at  Douay,  "  we,  all 
dispersed  in  great  numbers  through  the  world, 
have  made  a  league  and  holy  oath,  that  as  long 
as  any  of  us  are  alive,  all  our  care  and  industry, 
all  our  deliberations  and  councils,  shall  never 
cease  to  trouble  your  calm  and  safety."  The 
same  enthusiast,  when  from  his  place  of  conceal- 
ment, he  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Privy-Council, 


278 


CAM  PI  AN. 


[chap. 


defying  the  heads  of  the  English  Church  to  a 
disputation  before  the  Queen  and  Council,  re- 
peated the  threat.  "  Be  it  known  unto  you,"  he 
said,  14  that  we  have  made  a  league,  all  the  Je- 
suits in  the  world,  whose  succession  and  multi- 
tude must  overreach  all  the  practices  of  England, 
cheerfully  to  carry  the  cross  that  you  shall  lay 
upon  us,  and  never  to  despair  your  recovery  while 
we  have  a  man  left  to  enjoy  your  Tyburn,  or  to 
be  racked  with  your  torments,  or  to  be  consumed 
with  your  prisons.  Expenses  are  reckoned :  the 
enterprise  is  begun  :  it  is  of  God :  it  cannot  be 
Avithstood.  So  the  faith  was  planted.  So  it  must 
be  restored." 

Campian  and  his  fellow-sufferers  acted  up  to 
the  lofty  spirit  of  this  declaration.  They  died  as 
martyrs,  according  to  their  own  views,  and  as 
martyrs  they  were  then  regarded,  and  are  still 
represented,  by  the  Romanists.  Certain,  how- 
ever, it  is,  that  they  suffered  for  points  of  State, 
and  not  of  Faith:  not  as  Roman  Catholics,  but 
as  Bull-papists;  not  for  religion,  but  for  treason. 
Some  of  them  are  to  be  admired  as  men  of  genius 
and  high  endowments,  as  well  as  of  heroic  con- 
stancy :  all  to  be  lamented,  as  acting  for  an  in- 
jurious purpose,  under  a  mistaken  sense  of  duty; 
but  their  sufferings  belong  to  the  history  of  pa- 
pal politics,  rather  than  of  religious  persecution. 
They  succeeded  in  raising  one  rebellion,  which 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


279 


was  easily  suppressed,  for  Elizabeth  was  de- 
servedly popular,  and  the  Protestants  had  now 
become  the  great  majority  :  but  repeated  con- 
spiracies against  the  life  of  the  Queen  were  de- 
tected ;  and  such  were  the  avowed  principles 
and  intentions  of  the  Papists,  wherever  they 
dared  avow  them,  that  Walsingham  expressed  his 
fears  of  a  Bartholomew  breakfast,  or  a  Florence 
banquet. 

The  object  of  all  these  conspiracies  was  to  set 
the  Queen  of  Scots  upon  the  throne  ;  this,  the 
English  Jesuits  said,  was  the  only  means  of  re- 
forming all  Christendom,  by  reducing  it  to  the 
Catholic  faith;  and  they  boasted  that  there  were 
"  more  heads  occupied  upon  it  than  English 
heads,  and  more  ways  to  the  wood  than  one." 
A  book  was  written  by  a  friend  of  Campian's, 
wherein  the  ladies  who  were  about  Elizabeth's 
person,  were  exhorted,  after  the  example  of  Ju- 
dith, to  destroy  her.  Many  of  the  Protestant 
nobles  and  gentry  deemed  the  danger  so  great, 
that  they  formed  an  association,  pledging  them- 
selves to  prosecute  to  death,  as  far  as  lay  in  their 
power,  all  those  who  should  attempt  any  thing 
against  the  Queen ;  and  this  was  thought  so 
necessary  a  measure,  that  Parliament  followed 
the  example.  Mary  was  but  too  well  justified  in 
encouraging  the  plans  which  were  formed  for  her 
deliverance   and  elevation  ;    nor  was   it  by  the 


280  MARY,  QUEEN  OF  SCOTS.  [chap. 


sense  of  her  own  wrongs  only  that  she  was  ex- 
cited to  this;  a  religious  motive  was  superadded. 
She  communicated  with  Alva,  urging  him,  while 
her  son  was  yet  young,  to  devise  means  for  con- 
veying him  out  of  Scotland  into  Spain,  where  he 
might  be  bred  up  in  the  Romish  faith.  When 
it  was  too  late  for  this,  and  the  scheme  of  mar- 
rying the  Duke  of  Norfolk  had  ended  in  bring- 
ing him  to  the  scaffold,  a  plan  was  formed 
between  the  Pope  and  Don  John  of  Austria,  that 
Don  John  should  conquer  England  by  help  of 
the  Spaniards,  marry  her,  and  become  King  of 
Great  Britain  in  her  right.  In  the  early  years 
of  her  imprisonment,  the  King  of  France  said  of 
her,  "  She  will  never  cease  till  she  lose  her  head. 
They  will  put  her  to  death  :  it  is  her  own  fault 
and  folly."  Rather  it  was  her  misfortune  and  her 
fate. 

Elizabeth's  counsellors  had  long  advised  that 
Mary  should  be  put  to  death :  they  had  obtained 
full  proof  of  her  connexion  with  schemes  of  con- 
spiracy and  invasion:  the  people  cried  out  for 
this,  as  necessary  for  the  security  of  the  Queen 
and  of  the  nation ;  and  Parliament  petitioned, 
when  the  sentence  had  been  passed,  that  it 
might  be  carried  into  effect.  Yet  it  is  a  dis- 
graceful part  of  English  history.  Some  who  had 
entered  into  correspondence  with  her,  endea- 
voured now  to  hasten  her  death,  as  the  surest 


ELIZABETH. 


281 


means  of  averting  suspicion  from  themselves;  and 
Elizabeth's  conduct  was  marked  by  duplicity,  which 
has  left  upon  her  memory  a  lasting  stain.  Nor  is 
the  act  itself  to  be  exe:;  ;ed  or  palliated.  It  was 
thought  at  the  time  to  be  reauired  by  the  strong- 
est circumst  mces  of  staie  necessity;  and  yet  nei- 
ther the  Queen  nor  the  kingdom  were  more  secure 
when  this  enemy  was  removed  :  the  practices 
against  Elizabeth's  life  were  still  continued,  and  a 
title  to  the  crown  was  vamped  up  for  the  royal  fa- 
mily of  Spain,  which  the  Seminarists  supported  by 
their  writings  and  intrigues. 

Elizabeth  was  at  this  time  engaged  in  open 
hostilities  with  the  Spaniards,  a  course  to  which 
the  circumstances  of  Europe  had  compelled  her 
against  her  will.  Probably  she  long  retained  a 
sense  of  personal  good  will  towards  Philip,  for 
the  protection  that  he  had  afforded  her  during 
her  sister's  reign  :  and  when  the  war  in  the  Ne- 
therlands broke  out,  she  was  well  aware  how 
dangerous  to  England  it  would  be,  if  France 
should  obtain  possession  of  those  important  pro- 
vinces ;  and  the  termination  which  she  endea- 
voured to  bring  about,  as  long  as  there  was  the 
slightest  hope  of  effecting  it,  was  that  the  inha- 
bitants should  have  the  free  exercise  of  their  re- 
ligion secured  to  them,  and  return  to  their  obe- 
dience. Had  Philip  listened  to  her  interference, 
there  was  nothing,  either  in  the  temper  or  prin- 


282 


ELIZABETH 


[chap. 


ciples  of  the  English  Government,  which  would 
have  prevented  a  reciprocal  toleration  here.  But 
religious  bigotry  made  the  Spaniards  resolve  upon 
a  war  of  extermination  in  the  Low  Countries,  be- 
lieving themselves  sure  of  success  ;  and  if  they  had 
succeeded,  the  same  motive  would  direct  their  ef- 
forts against  England  with  additional  force,  because, 
with  the  Protestant  government  of  that  kingdom, 
the  Protestant  cause  must  then  have  been  sub- 
dued. 

There  appeared  too  much  reason  for  appre- 
hending this,  after  the  murder  of  the  Prince  of 
Orange,  when  the  Spaniards,  under  a  general  of 
consummate  talents  in  the  art  of  war,  were  suc- 
cessful in  all  their  undertakings,  and,  in  the  con- 
quest of  Antwerp,  had  accomplished  the  greatest 
military  undertaking  of  modern  warfare.  Shortly 
afterwards  two  English  Catholics  betrayed  their 
trust  in  the  Netherlands  ;  the  one  delivering  to 
the  Spaniards  a  fort  which  he  commanded  near 
Zutphen,  the  other  the  city  of  Deventer,  of  which 
he  was  governor,  and  taking  over  with  him  a 
regiment  of  1300  men.  The  former  of  these 
traitors  was  a  ruffian,  whose  profligate  character 
ought  to  have  disqualified  him  for  any  honourable 
employment;  but  Sir  William  Stanley,  the  latter, 
acted  upon  a  principle  of  conscience  ;  he  believed, 
as  the  head  of  his  church  proclaimed,  that  his 
duty,  as   an    English  subject,  was  incompatible 


ELIZABETH. 


283 


with  his  duty  as  a  Catholic;  and,  as  must  always 
be  the  case  when  such  duties  are  supposed  to  be 
in  opposition  to  each  other,  the  weakest  went  to 
the  wall.  He  was,  in  all  other  respects,  an  honour- 
able man,  who  had  served  with  singular  fidelity 
and  valour;  on  his  part,  therefore,  this  treason 
was  not  an  act  of  individual  baseness,  but  the 
direct  consequence  of  his  religious  opinions ;  and 
as  such  it  was  publicly  defended,  extolled,  and 
held  up  for  a  meritorious  example,  by  Cardinal 
Allen,  the  person,  of  all  others,  whom  the  English 
Catholics  regarded  with  most  respect.  The  Car- 
dinal and  the  Pope  wrote  to  Philip,  soliciting 
his  favour  for  Stanley's  regiment  of  deserters, 
and  saying,  that  as  he  already  encouraged  a 
seminary  of  students  to  pray  and  write  for  the 
furtherance  of  the  Calholic  cause  in  1  ngland,  so 
might  this  regiment,  under  the  command  of  so 
Avorthy  and  Catholic  a  person  as  Sir  William 
Stanley,  be  made  a  seminary  of  soldiers  to  fight 
for  it.  When  the  great  attempt  at  invasion  was 
made,  Allen  advised  the  King  of  Spain  to  let  the 
management  of  the  Armada  be  confided  to  Eng- 
lish sailors,  perfectly  acquainted  with  their  own 
seas  and  coast ;  and  when  he  spoke  of  this  in 
after  years,  he  used  to  weep  with  bitterness,  re- 
membering how  fatally  for  the  Romish  cause  his 
advice  had  been  rejected.  It  has  been  said,  upon 
his  alleged  authority,  that  if  the  invasion  had  sue- 


284 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap. 


ceeded,  and  Elizabeth  had  been  taken  prisoner,  the 
intention  was  to  send  her  to  Rome,  that  the  Pope 
might  dispose  of  her  as  he  thought  best. 

That  danger,  the  greatest  with  which  these 
kingdoms  and  the  Protestant  cause  were  ever 
threatened,  was  met  with  a  spirit  such  as  the 
emergency  required  ;  but  it  was  averted  less  by 
any  human  means,  than  by  the  providential 
agency  of  the  elements.  Unable  to  wreak  their 
vengeance  upon  Elizabeth  in  any  more  satis- 
factory manner,  the  Romanists  gratified  it  by  re- 
presenting her  as  a  monster  of  impiety  and  cruelty. 
An  unnatural  Englishman,  who  held  the  office 
of  Professor  of  Divinity  in  a  Catholic  univer- 
sity, asserted,  that  Heaven  hated,  and  Earth 
persecuted,  whatever  bore  the  English  name : 
and  had  the  accounts  which  these  slanderers  dis- 
seminated been  true,  England  would  have  de- 
served this  universal  odium.  A  book  was  pub- 
lished at  Rome,  with  prints  representing  the 
cruelties  practised  by  the  English  upon  the 
Catholics  because  of  their  religion ;  one  of  the 
punishments  being  to  sew  them  in  bear-skins, 
and  bait  them  with  dogs.  They  affirmed  that 
at  the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries,  the  Reli- 
gioners were  left  at  the  mercy  of  the  mob,  any 
person  being  allowed  to  put  them  to  death  in  any 
manner, . . .  that  some  were  torn  to  pieces  by 
horses,  some  crucified,  some   murdered  in  pri- 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


285 


son  by  forcing  hot  irons  into  their  eyes  and  ears; 
that  it  was  a  common  practice  to  expose  Catholic 
virgins  of  noble  family  in  the  public  stews,  if 
they  would  not  renounce  their  religion,  and  that 
this  was  done  by  order  of  Elizabeth  herself;  that 
hynms  in  praise  of  Elizabeth  were  set  forth  by 
authority,  in  place  of  the  praises  of  the  Virgin 
Mary,  and  used  in  the  service  of  the  Church  ;  and 
that  the  Queen  had  a  law  passed,  by  which  her 
bastard  children  were  appointed  to  succeed  her. 
The  books*  in  which  these  execrable  falsehoods 
were  affirmed,  were  not  only  licensed,  but  ap- 
proved and  recommended  by  the  censors  of  the 
press,  as  authentic  expositions  of  the  state  of 
England,  and  the  character  of  the  English  Queen 
and  of  the  English  Church. 

That  Church,  and  the  Queen,  its  re-founderT 
are  clear  of  persecution,  as  regards  the  Catholics. 
No  church,  no  sect,  no  individual,  even,  had  yet 
professed  the  principle  of  toleration ;  insomuch 
that  when  the  English  Bishops  proposed  that 
certain  incorrigible  Arians  and  Pelagians  should 


*  1  allude  more  particularly  to  the  Historia  Ecdesiastica  dd 
Soisma'del  Reynojie  Inglaterra,by  the  Jesuit  Pedro  de  Ribade- 
neyra,  who,  having  been  in  this  country  during  Mary's  reign, 
must  have  known  that  the  calumny  which  he  propagated  con. 
cerning  Elizabeth's  incestuous  origin,  was  utterly  false; — and 
to  the  Noticias  Historicas  de  las  Tres  Florentissimas  Provincias 
del  Celeste  Orden  de  la  Santissima  Trinidad,  en  Inglaterra,  Es- 
cpcia,  y  Hibemia,  by  El  M.  R.  P.  M.  Fr.  Domingo  Lopez. 


286 


ELIZABETH. 


be  confined  in  some  castle  in  North  Wales,  where 
they  were  to  be  secluded  from  all  intercourse  with 
others,  and  to  live  by  their  own  labour,  till  they 
should  be  found  to  repent  their  errors,  this  was 
an  approach  to  it  which  the  age  was  not  prepared 
to  bear.  Some  Anabaptists  from  Holland  were 
apprehended :  their  wild  opinions,  and  still  more 
their  history,  had  placed  this  unhappy  sect,  as  it 
were,  under  the  ban  of  society  wherever  they  ap- 
peared; they  were  condemned  as  heretics;  one 
submitted  to  an  acknowledgment  of  error,  eight 
were  sent  out  of  the  country,  but  two,  who  were 
deemed  pre-eminently  impious,  were  delivered  to 
the  flames.  The  good  old  martyrologist,  whom 
Elizabeth,  with  becoming  reverence,  used  always 
to  call  Father  Fox,  interceded  for  these  poor 
wretches,  and  addressed  to  the  Queen  a  Latin 
letter  in  their  behalf.  He  did  not  ask  that  such 
fanatical  sects  should  be  tolerated;  nothing,  he 
said,  could  be  more  absurd  than  their  foul  and 
portentous  errors;  they  were  by  no  means  to  be 
endured,  but  to  be  repressed  by  fit  correction. 
But  that  the  living  bodies  of  these  miserable 
creatures  should  be  destroyed  by  fire  and  flame, 
raging  with  the  strength  of  pitch  and  sulphur,... 
this,  he  ^lid,  is  more  conformable  to  the  cruelty 
of  the  Romanists,  than  to  the  Gospel.  "My 
nature  is  such,  (and  this  I  say  of  myself  fool- 
ishly, perhaps,  but  truly,)  that  I  can  hardly  pass 


xv.]  FOX  THE  MART\  ROLOGIST.  287 


by  the  shambles  where  cattle  are  slaughtered, 
without  an  inward  sense  of  pain  and  repugnance. 
And  with  my  whole  heart  I  admire  and  venerate 
the  mercy  of  God  for  this,  that,  concerning  those 
brute  and  humble  creatures,  who  were  formerly 
offered  in  sacrifice,  he  provided  that  they  should 
not  be  burnt,  until  their  blood  had  been  poured 
out  at  the  foot  of  the  altar.  Whence,  in  exact- 
ing just  punishment,  we  may  learn  that  every 
thing  must  not  be  permitted  to  severity ;  but 
that  the  asperity  of  rigour  should  be  tempered 
with  clemency.  Wherefore,  if  I  may  venture  so 
far,  I  entreat  your  excellent  Majesty,  for  Christ's 
sake,  that  the  life  of  these  miserable  creatures 
may  be  spared  if  thai  be  possible,  (and  what  is 
there  which  is  not  possible,  in  such  cases,  to 
your  Majesty  ?)  — at  least  that  this  horror  may  be 
prevented,  and  changed  into  some  other  kind  of 
punishment.  There  is  imprisonment,  there  are 
chains,  there  is  perpetual  exile,  there  are  brand- 
ing and  stripes,  and  even  the  gibbet  ;  this  alone 
I  earnestly  deprecate,  that  you  would  not  suffer 
the  fires  of  Smithfield,  which,  under  your  most 
happy  auspices,  have  slept  so  long,  to  be  again 
rekindled."  He  concluded  by  praying,  if  he 
couli1  btain  no  more,  that  a  month  or  two  might 
at  least  be  granted  him,  during  which  it  might 
be  tried  whether  God  would  give  them  grace  to 
recover  from  their  perilous  errors,  lest,  with  the 


ELIZABETH. 


[chap. 


loss  of  their  bodies,  their  souls  also  should  be  in 
danger  of  everlasting  destruction.  Alas,  the  latter 
petition  was  all  that  he  obtained !  A  month's  re- 
prieve was  granted ;  and  the  poor  creatures,  re- 
maining firm  in  their  notions,  then  suffered  the 
cruel  death  to  which  they  had  been  condemned. 
The  excuse  which  has  been  offered  is,  "  that  Eli- 
zabeth was  necessitated  to  this  severity,  who  hav- 
ing formerly  executed  some  traitors,  if  now  spar- 
ing these  blasphemers,  the  world  would  condemn 
her,  as  being  more  earnest  in  asserting  her  own 
safety,  than  God's  honour."  A  miserable  excuse; 
but  it  shows  how  entirely  the  execution  of  the  Se- 
minarists was  regarded  as  the  punishment  of  trea- 
son. Against  this  crime  Father  Fox  appears  to  have 
been  the  only  person  who  raised  his  voice.  But 
against  the  conciliatory  system,  which  the  Church 
and  State  pursued,  a  fiercer  opposition  was  made 
by  fanatical  Protestants,  than  by  the  Papists  them- 
selves. 

The  founders  of  the  English  Church  were  not 
hasty  reformers  who  did  their  work  in  the  heat 
of  enthusiasm ;  they  were  men  of  mature  judge- 
ment and  consummate  prudence,  as  well  as  of 
sound  learning,  and  sincere  piety ;  their  aim  was, 
in  the  form  and  constitution  of  the  Church,  never 
to  depart  unnecessarily  from  what  had  been  long 
established;  that  thus  the  great  body  of  the  Ro- 
manists might  more  easily  be  reconciled  to  the 


XV] 


THE  PURITANS. 


239 


transition ;  and  in  their  articles  to  use  such  com- 
prehensive words,  as  might  leave  a  latitude  for  dif- 
ferent opinions  upon  contentious  points.  There 
had  been  a  dispute  among  the  emigrants  at  Frank- 
fort, during  Mary's  reign  ;  it  had  been  mischiev- 
ously begun,  and  unwarrantably  prosecuted,  and  its 
consequences  were  lamentably  felt  in  England; 
whither  some  of  the  parties  brought  back  with 
them  a  predilection  for  the  discipline  of  the  Cal- 
vinists,  and  a  rooted  aversion  for  whatever  Catho- 
lic forms  were  retained  in  the  English  Church. 
In  this,  indeed,  they  went  beyond  Calvin  himself; 
refusing  to  tolerate  what  he  had  pronounced  to 
be  "  tolerable  fooleries."  The  objects  of  their 
abhorrence  were  the  square  cap,  the  tippet,  and 
the  surplice,  which  they  called  conjuring  garments 
of  popery. 

Great  forbearance  was  shown  toward  the  first 
generation  of  men,  who  were  disquieted  with 
these  pitiful  scruples.  Regard  was  had  to  their 
otherwise  exemplary  lives,  to  their  former  suffer- 
ings, and  to  the  signal  services  which  some  of 
them  had  rendered  to  the  Protestant  cause,  for 
Coverdale,  Lever,  and  Father  Fox,  were  among 
them.  These,  who  neither  sought  to  disturb 
the  order,  nor  insult  the  practice  of  the  Church, 
were  connived  at  for  inobscrvancies,  which  in 
them  were  harmless,  because  they  did  not  pro- 
ceed from  a  principle  of  insubordination.    It  was 

vol.  II.  19 


290 


LEICESTER. 


[chap. 


not  till  several  years  had  elapsed,  and  strong  pro- 
vocation had  repeatedly  been  given,  that  any  per- 
son was  silenced  for  non-conformity.  Bishop 
Grindal  entreated  Sampson,  the  Dean  of  Christ 
Church,  even  with  tears,  that  he  would  only  so 
far  conform,  as  sometimes  to  wear  the  cap  at  pub- 
lic meetings  in  the  University  ;  and  the  Dean  re- 
fused as  determinately,  as  if  he  had  been  called 
upon  to  bow  the  knee  to  Baal.  He  was  encou- 
raged in  this,  by  Leicester's  protection.  That 
unprincipled  minion  favoured  the  Puritans,  because 
he  was  desirous  of  stripping  the  bishoprics,  and 
securing  to  himself  a  portion  of  the  spoils ;  a 
design,  which  he  could  hope  to  accomplish  by 
no  other  means  than  by  the  triumph  of  this 
levelling  faction.  Even  a  fouler  motive  may  be 
suspected.  At  one  time,  he  entertained  a  project 
of  marrying  the  Queen  of  Scots ;  and  afterwards 
was  in  hope  of  obtaining  the  hand  of  Elizabeth 
herself.  This  latter  hope  he  communicated  to 
the  Spanish  Ambassador,  requesting  that  the 
King  of  Spain  would  use  his  influence  to  promote 
the  match  ;  and  pledging  himself,  if  it  were  effect- 
ed, to  restore  the  Catholic  religion  in  this  king- 
dom. If  he  seriously  entertained  this  project,  no 
better  course  of  preparation  could  be  followed, 
than  that  of  weakening  and  distracting  the  Church 
of  England. 

The  proceedings   of   Elizabeth's  government. 


XV.] 


ELIZABETH. 


291 


both  towards  Papists  and  Puritans,  were  grounded 
upon  these  principles,  that  conscience  is  not  to 
be  constrained,  but  won  by  force  of  truth,  with 
the  aid  of  time,  and  use  of  all  good  means  of 
persuasion ;  and  that  cases  of  conscience,  when 
they  exceed  their  bounds,  and  grow  to  be  matter 
of  faction,  lose  their  nature;  and,  however  they 
may  be  coloured  with  the  pretence  of  religion, 
are  then  to  be  restrained  and  punished.  When 
the  Puritans  inveighed  against  pluralities  and  non- 
residence,  though  the  circumstances  of  the  Church, 
and  its  extreme  impoverishment,  rendered  ine- 
vitable what  would  otherwise  have  been  an  abuse, 
their  zeal  was  not  condemned ;  and  they  were 
long  tolerated  in  their  refusal  of  the  habits,  and 
some  of  the  ceremonies,  with  an  indulgence,  which, 
if  the  personal  qualities  of  the  first  Non-conform- 
ists had  not  been  considered,  would  appear  to 
have  been  carried  too  far,  and  used  too  long. 
"  There  are  some  sins,"  says  Jeremy  Taylor, 
"  whose  malignity  is  accidentally  increased  by 
the  lightness  of  the  subject  matter ;  ...  to  de- 
spise authority,  when  the  obedience  is  so  easy 
as  the  wearing  of  a  garment,  or  doing  of  a 
posture,  is  a  greater  and  more  impudent  con- 
tempt, than  to  despise  authority  imposing  a  great 
burden  of  a  more  considerable  pressure,  when 
human  infirmity  may  tempt  to  a  disobedience, 
and  lessen  the  crime."    The  men  for  whose  sake 
19 


292 


THE  PURITANS. 


[chap. 


this  indulgence  was  allowed,  deserved,  and  were 
contented  with  it.  But  there  were  others,  in 
whom  the  spirit  of  insubordination  was  at  work  ; 
and  who,  if  their  first  demands  had  been  con- 
ceded, would  then  have  protested  against  the 
weathercock,  made  war  upon  steeples,  and  re- 
quired that  all  churches  should  be  built  north 
and  south,  in  opposition  to  the  superstitious  usage 
of  placing  them  east  and  west.  The  habits  at 
first  had  been  the  only,  or  chief,  matter  of  conten- 
tion, all  the  rites  of  the  Church  were  soon  attack- 
ed ;  and,  finally,  its  whole  form  and  structure. 
The  first  questions  were,  as  Hooker  excellently 
said,  "  such  silly  things,  that  very  easiness  made 
them  hard  to  be  disputed  of  in  serious  manner ;" 
but  he  added,  with  his  admirable  and  characte- 
ristic wisdom,  "  if  any  marvelled  how  a  thing  in 
itself  so  weak,  could  import  any  great  danger, 
they  must  consider  not  so  much  how  small  the 
spark  is  that  flieth  up,  as  how  apt  things  about  it 
are  to  take  fire." 

The  object  of  the  second  race  of  Non-con- 
formists was  to  eradicate  every  vestige  of  the 
Romish  Church,  and  to  substitute  such  a  plat- 
form of  discipline  as  Calvin  had  erected  at  Ge- 
neva :  this  they  called  "  the  pattern  in  the 
mount,"  and  they  were  too  hot  and  hasty,  to 
consider  that  Calvin's  scheme  was  formed  with 
relation  to  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  that 


THE  PURITANS. 


293 


petty  state.    He  was  invited  there  by  a  turbulent 
democracy,  who  having  driven  away  their  Bishop 
and  his  Clergy,  had  just  lived  long  enough  in  a 
state  of  ecclesiastical  anarchy,  to  feel  the  neces- 
sity of  having  some  discipline  established  among 
them.    An  episcopal  form  was  not  to  be  thought 
of;  nor  was  there  any  hope  that  the  people  would 
be  satisfied,  unless  the  system  which  he  proposed 
had  at  least  a  democratical  appearance.  Wisely, 
therefore,  because   necessity  required  that  his 
views  should  be  shaped  according  to  the  occasion, 
he  formed  a  standing  ecclesiastical  court,  of  which 
the  ministers  were  perpetual  members,  and  Cal- 
vin himself,  perpetual  president ;  twice  as  many 
of  the  laity  being  annually  elected  as  their  asso- 
ciates :   to  this  court,  full  power  was  given  to 
decide  all  ecclesiastical  causes,  to  inspect  all  men's 
manners,  and  punish,  as  far  as  excommunication, 
all  persons  of  whatsoever  rank.    That  the  dis- 
cipline was  of  the  most  morose  and  inquisitorial 
kind,  .  .  .  the  members  of  the  court  being  empow- 
ered to  pry  into  the  private  affairs  of  every  fami- 
ly, and  examine  any  person  concerning  his  own, 
or  his  neighbour's,  conduct  upon  oath,  .  .  .  and 
that  the  Church  of  Geneva  assumed  as  high  a 
tone  as  that  of  Rome,  must  be  ascribed  something 
to  the  temper  of  the  times,  but  more  to  that  of 
the  legislator. 
The  Genevan  scheme  had  been  adopted  in 


294 


THE  PURITANS. 


[chap 


Scotland,  because  Knox  was  a  disciple  of  Calvin, 
and  because  the  nobles,  to  whom  that  miserable 
country  was  a  prey,  preferred  a  church  govern- 
ment under  which  they  might  divide  among  them- 
selves the  whole  property  of  the  Church.  Its 
partisans  in  England  proposed  the  discipline  as 
the  only  and  sure  remedy  for  all  the  evils  of 
the  state,  promising,  among  what  Walsingham 
called  other  impossible  wonders,  that  if  it  were 
once  planted,  there  should  be  neither  beggars  nor 
vagabonds  in  the  land.  "  In  very  truth,"  said 
Parker,  "  they  are  ambitious  spirits,  and  can 
abide  no  superiority.  Their  fancies  are  favoured 
of  some  of  great  calling,  who  seek  to  gain  by 
other  men's  losses ;  and  most  plausible  are  these 
men's  devices  to  a  great  number  of  the  people 
who  labour  to  live  in  all  libertv.  But  the  one, 
blinded  with  the  desire  of  getting,  see  not  their 
own  fall,  which  no  doubt  will  follow  :  the  other, 
hunting  for  alteration,  pull  upon  their  necks  into- 
lerable servitude.  For  these  fantastical  spirits, 
which  labour  to  reign  in  men's  consciences,  will, 
if  they  may  bring  their  purposes  to  pass,  lay  a 
heavy  yoke  upon  their  necks.  In  the  platform 
set  down  by  these  new  builders,  we  evidently  see 
the  spoliation  of  the  patrimony  of  Christ,  and  a 
popular  state  to  be  sought.  The  end  will  be 
ruin  to  religion,  and  confusion  to  our  country." 
No  great  political  calamities  have  ever  befallen 


THE  PURITANS 


29.) 


a  civilized  state,  without  being  distinctly  foreseen 
and  plainly  predicted  by  men  wiser  than  their 
generation.  Elizabeth  perceived  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  these  church-revolutionists  were  hostile  to 
monarchy  :  men,  she  said,  who  were  "  overbold 
with  the  Almighty,  making  too  many  scannings  of 
his  blessed  will,  as  lawyers  did  with  human  testa- 
ments;" and  she  declared,  that,  without  meaning 
to  encourage  the  Romanists,  she  considered  these 
persons  more  perilous  to  the  state. 

The  number  of  non-conforming  clergy  was  but 
small ;  when  an  account  was  taken  of  them  by 
Archbishop  Whitgift,  there  were  found  49  in  the 
province  of  Canterbury,  those  who  were  con- 
formable being  786.  "  The  most  ancient,"  said 
he,  "  and  best  learned,  the  wisest,  and  in  effect, 
the  whole  state  of  the  Clergy  of  this  province 
do  conform  themselves;  such  as  are  otherwise 
affected,  are  in  comparison  of  the  rest  but  few, 
and  most  of  them  young  in  years,  and  of  unset- 
tled minds :"  and  he  complained  how  intolerable 
it  was,  that  "  a  few  men,  for  the  most  part  young, 
and  of  very  small  reading  and  study,  and  some 
of  them  utterly  unlearned,  should  oppose  them- 
selves to  that,  which  by  the  most  notable  and 
famous  men  in  learning,  had  been  allowed,  and  in 
the  use  whereof,  God  had  so  wonderfully  blessed 
this  kingdom."  But  the  tyrannical  disposition 
of  these  people,  who  demanded  to  be  set  free 


296 


THE  PURITANS. 


[chap. 


from  all  restraint  themselves,  Avas  even  more  in- 
tolerable than  their  presumption.    As  far  as  was 
in  their  power  they  separated  themselves  from 
the  members  of  the  Church,  and  refused  to  hold 
any  communion  with  them.    Instances  occurred, 
where  they  were  strong  enough,  of  their  thrusting 
the  Clergy  out  of  their  own  churches,  if  they 
wore  the  surplice,  and  taking  away  the  bread 
from  the  communion  table,  because  it  was  in  the 
wafer  form.    Some  fanatics  spat  in  the  face  of 
their  old  acquaintance,  to  testify  their  utter  ab- 
horrence of  conformity.    There  were  refractory 
Clergy   who  refused    to  baptize  by  any  names 
which  were  not  to  be  found  In  the  Scriptures ; 
and  as  one  folly  leads  to  another,  the  scriptural 
names  themselves  were  laid  aside,  for  such  sig- 
nificant appellations   as  Deliverance,  Discipline, 
From  above,  More  trial,  More  fruit,  Joy  again, 
Earth,  Dust,  Ashes,  Kill  sin,  and  Fight  the  good 
fight  of  faith.    But  it  is  not  in  such  follies  that 
the  spirit  of  fanaticism  rests  contented.  They 
boasted  in  the  division  which  they  occasioned, 
and  said  it  was  an  especial  token,  that  the  work 
came  from  God,  because  Christ  had  declared  he 
came  not  to  send  peace  into  the  world,  but  a 
sword.    That  sword,  it  was  their  evident  belief, 
was  to  be  entrusted  to  their  hands.    Their  first 
prayer  had  been,  that  the  Church  might  be  swept 
clean;  this  was  sufficiently  significant:  but  when 


-J 


THE  PURITANS. 


297 


they  found  that  they  were  not  allowed  to  per- 
form the  task  of  sweeping,  they  prayed  that  God 
would  strike  through  the  sides  of  all  who  went 
about  to  deprive  his  ministers  of  the  liberty 
which  He  granted  them.  A  third  race  arose, 
who  in  contumacy  and  violence  exceeded  the 
second,  as  much  as  they  had  outgone  the  first. 
They  were  for  putting  in  practice  the  most  dan- 
gerous maxims,  which  their  predecessors,  in  the 
heat  of  controversy,  had  thrown  out.  Because 
it  is  better  to  obey  God  than  man,  they  pro 
claimed  that  if  the  magistrates  would  not  be 
persuaded  to  erect  the  discipline,  they  ought,  in- 
stead of  lingering  and  staying  for  Parliament,  to 
prosecute  the  matter  with  celerity,  and  erect  it 
themselves.  This  was  a  case  in  which  subjects 
might  withstand  their  Prince ;  the  ministers,  after 
due  admonition,  might  excommunicate  him  as  an 
enemy  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ;  and  being  so 
excommunicated,  the  people  might  then  punish 
him.  Such  doctrines,  mingled  with  the  coarsest 
and  foulest  ribaldry,  were  promulgated  in  fero- 
cious libels;  the  authors  and  printers  of  which 
long  continued  to  elude  and  to  defy  the  vigilance 
of  the  laws.  Hitherto,  so  long  as  they  had  been 
contented  with  proposing  what  they  desired, 
"  leaving  it  to  the  providence  of  God,  and  to  the 
authority  of  the  magistrates,"  they  had  been 
borne  with,  except  in  cases  of  extreme  contempt. 


298         COURT  OF  HIGH  COMMISSION.  [chap. 


But  now,  (they  are  Walsingham's  words,  a  mi- 
nister who  was  disposed  to  regard  them  and  their 
proceedings  more  favourably  than  he  ought,)  .  . . 
when  they  "  affirmed  that  the  consent  of  the 
magistrate  was  not  to  be  attended;  when  they 
combined  themselves  by  classes  and  subscrip- 
tions; when  they  descended  into  that  vile  and 
base  means  of  defacing  the  government  of  the 
Church  by  ridiculous  pasquils  ;  when  they  began 
to  make  many  subjects  in  doubt  to  take  an  oath, 
(which  is  one  of  the  fundamental  points  of  justice 
in  this  land,  and  in  all  places)  ;  when  they  began 
both  to  vaunt  of  their  strength  and  number  of 
their  partisans  and  followers,  and  to  use  commi- 
nations  that  their  cause  would  prevail,  though  with 
uproar  and  violence  ;  then  it  appeared  to  be  no 
more  zeal,  no  more  conscience,  but  mere  faction 
and  division." 

The  Act  which  restored  to  the  Crown  its  "  an- 
cient jurisdiction  over  the  Estate  Ecclesiastical 
and  Spiritual,"  provided  that  the  Sovereign  might 
appoint  Commissioners  to  exercise  this  jurisdic- 
tion ;  they  had  authority  to  inquire  into  all  of- 
fences which  fell  under  the  ecclesiastical  laws, 
"  by  the  oaths  of  twelve  men,  as  also  by  wit- 
nesses, and  all  other  ways  and  means*  they  could 


*  "  That  is,"  says  Neal,  "  by  Inquisition,  by  the  rack,  by  tor- 
ture, or  by  any  ways  and  means  that  forty-four  sovereign  judges 


ELIZABETH. 


299 


devise  ;  to  examine  offenders  upon  oath,  and  pu- 
nish them  by  fine  or  imprisonment,  at  discre- 
tion." These  powers,  great  as  they  were,  were 
less  than  those  in  the  place  of  which  they  were 
substituted.  They  were  afterwards  grossly 
abused  :  but  during  Elizabeth's  reign  the  practice 
was  less  objectionable  than  the  principle.  The 
Church  was  right  in  exacting  conformity  from 
its  ministers ;  its  error  was  in  not  permitting 
men  of  narrow  minds  and  rickety  consciences  to 
associate  and  worship  after  their  own  way.  But 
the  malcontents  would  not  have  been  satisfied 
with  this.     It  was   not  for  toleration  that  they 


shall  invent.  Surely  this  should  have  been  limited  to  lawful 
ways  and  means.''''  (History  of  the  Puritans,  Vol.  i.  414.)  And 
surely  this  most  prejudiced  and  dishonest  of  all  historians  ought 
to  have  observed, that  it  was  so  limited  twice  in  the  very  commis- 
sion itself.  It  is  but  too  true,  that  the  torture  was  then  in  use 
in  cases  of  treason,  and  that  upon  that  score,  many  of  the  Romish 
martyrs  were  put  to  the  rack.  But  such  cases  were  not  within 
cognizance  of  this  court ;  they  had  no  authority  to  use  the  tor- 
ture ;  nor  is  there  the  slightest  proof,  or  presumption, that  it  was 
ever  exercised  by  them.  "  If  any  article  did  touch  the  party  any 
way,either  for  life, liberty,  or  scandal,  he  might  refuse  to  answer  ; 
neither  was  he  urged  thereunto."  These  were  Whitgift's  words 
at  the  Hampton-Court  Conference.  What  the  sufferers  under 
the  hisfh  commission  complained  of,  was  the  miserable  state  of 
the  prisons  wherein  they  were  confined  ;  an  evil  which,  to  the 
disgrace  of  the  country,  continued  with  little  or  no  amendment 
till  our  own  days,  and  is  not  yet  every  where  removed. 


300 


ELIZABETH. 


contended,  but  for  the  establishment  of  their  own 
system,  under  which  no  toleration  would  have 
been  allowed.  Their  demands  were  founded 
upon  the  assumption  that  they  themselves  were 
infallible,  and  that  the  system  of  the  established 
Church  was  intolerable.  It  was  the  opinion  of 
the  greatest  statesmen  in  those  days,  that  uni- 
formity of  religion  is  absolutely  necessary  to  the 
support  of  a  government  ;  and  therefore  that 
toleration  cannot  be  granted  to  sectaries  with 
safety.  The  principle  of  intolerance,  indeed,  was 
common  to  those  who  exercised  authority,  and  to 
those  who  resisted  it ;  and  the  inevitable  conse- 
quence was,  that  contumacy  and  persecution  ex- 
asperated each  other.  Authority,  which  at  first 
was  justly  exercised,  was  provoked  to  act  op 
pressively ;  and  the  opposition,  which  began  in 
caprice  and  pertinacious  conceit,  became  respect- 
able and  even  magnanimous  in  suflering.  The 
Romanists,  seeing  the  miserable  schism  which 
had  arisen,  looked  upon  the  establishment  as  a 
divided,  and  therefore  an  unstable  Church,  and 
were  withheld  from  joining  it,  as  much  by  this 
consideration,  and  by  the  extravagance  of  the 
sectaries,  as  by  the  efforts  of  their  own  Clergy. 
Baffled  thus  in  its  plans  of  comprehension  and 
conciliation,  the  Government  had  recourse  to 
stronger  compulsive  measures,  not  perceiving  that 


XV.) 


CARTWRIGHT. 


301 


persecution  never  can  effect  its  object,  unless  it 
be  carried  to  an  extent  at  which  humanity  shud- 
ders and  revolts.  The  fine  for  not  attending 
church  on  Sundays,  which  had  been  fixed  at 
twelve  pence  for  each  omission,  was  raised  to 
the  enormous  sum  of  twenty  pounds  per  month  ; 
and  the  punishment  for  writing,  printing,  or  pub- 
lishing any  false,  seditious,  or  slanderous  matter, 
to  the  defamation  of  the  Queen,  or  to  the  stirring 
up  of  insurrection  and  rebellion,  was  made  death, 
as  in  cases  of  felony.  Some  of  the  men  con- 
cerned in  the  libels  against  the  Church,  suffered 
under  this  statute.  More  truculent  libels  never 
issued  from  the  press ;  but  the  punishment  ex- 
ceeded the  offence,  and  therefore  inflamed  in 
others  the  spirit  which  it  was  intended  to  abate. 
The  error  of  understanding,  the  presumptuous- 
ness  of  youth,  the  heat  of  mind  in  which  such 
writings  originated,  time  would  have  corrected  ; 
and,  where  there  was  any  generosity  of  heart, 
merciful  usage  would  have  produced  contrition. 
This  effect  was,  in  fact,  produced  upon  Cart- 
wright,  who,  mOre  than  any  other  individual,  had 
contributed  to  excite  and  diffuse  the  spirit  of  re- 
sistance and  dissension.  Age  sobered  him,  cle- 
mency softened  him,  experience  made  him  wise, 
and  his  latter  days  were  passed  in  dutiful  and 
peaceful  conformity.     "  In  controversies  of  this 


302 


CARTWRIGHT. 


[chap.  xv. 


kind,"  says  Fuller,  "  men,  when  they  consult  with 
their  gray  hairs,  begin  to  abate  of  their  violence." 
At  his  death  he  lamented  the  troubles  which  he 
had  raised  in  the  Church,  by  promoting  an  unne- 
cessary schism,  and  wished  he  could  begin  his  life 
again,  that  he  might  testify  how  deeply  he  disap- 
proved his  former  ways. 


303 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


JAMES  I. 

During  the  last  years  of  Elizabeth's  reign  the 
Puritans  remained  quiet :  they  saw  that  the  state 
was  resolved  to  make  the  clergy  conform  to  the 
institutions  of  their  church :  their  libels  were  put 
down  less  by  the  severity  of  the  law  than  by  a 
set  of  writers  who  replied  to  them  with  equal 
scurrility  and  more  wit;  and  they  lived  in  hope 
that,  upon  Elizabeth's  death,  an  order  of  things 
more  conformable  to  their  views  would  be  es- 
tablished by  a  King  who  had  been  bred  up  in 
Presbyterian  principles.  The  Romanists  also 
looked  with  equal  expectations  to  the  new  reign. 
They  reminded  King  James  of  his  mother's 
prayers,  that  he  might  be  such  as  they  most  de- 
sired; and  they  assured  him  that  they  rejoiced 
at  his  accession  no  otherwise  than  the  Christians 
in  old  times  had  done  upon  the  entrance  of  Con- 
stantine  into  the  empire  after  Diocletian,  or  of 
Jovian  after  Julian.  These  half-hearted  English- 
men rejoiced  at  Elizabeth's  death  ;  but  never  had 


304 


JAMES  I. 


any  sovereign  reigned  more  to  his  own  honour, 
or  to  the  advantage  of  his  subjects ;  and  so  sen- 
sible was  the  sound  part  of  the  nation  of  the 
benefits  which  it  had  derived  from  her  wise  and 
happy  government,  that  pictures  of  her  monu- 
ment were  hung  up  "  in  most  London  and  many- 
country  churches,  every  parish  being  proud  of 
the  shadow  of  her  tomb ;"  and  the  anniversary  of 
her  accession  was  for  some  generations  observed 
as  a  holyday  throughout  the  kingdom. 

James  had  been  too  well  educated  by  Buchanan 
ever  to  be  ensnared  in  the  toils  of  Romish  so- 
phistry :  he  was  but  half  a  King  to  the  Papists, 
he  said,  being  lord  over  their  bodies,  while  their 
souls  were  the  Pope's :  and  there  could  be  no 
continued  obedience  where  there  was  not  true 
religion.  He  came  also  armed  with  sound  learn- 
ing against  the  speculative  errors  of  Puritanism, 
and  with  no  predilection  for  its  discipline,  for  he 
had  both  seen  and  felt  its  practical  consequences. 
Once  when  ambassadors  from  France  were  about 
to  leave  his  court  and  he  had  desired  the  magis- 
trates of  Edinburgh  to  give  them  a  feast  before 
their  departure,  the  ministers  of  that  city  pro- 
claimed a  fast  for  the  day  appointed ;  and  to 
detain  the  people  at  church,  the  three  ordinary 
preachers  delivered  sermons  in  St.  Giles's  one 
after  another,  denouncing  curses  on  those  who 
obeved  the  King  on  that  occasion,  and  threatening 


XVI.] 


JAMES  r. 


305 


the  magistrates  with  excommunication.  A  rabid 
preacher  had  even  from  the  pulpit  denounced 
against  the  King  himself  by  name,  the  curse 
which  fell  on  Jeroboam,  that  he  should  die  child- 
less and  be  the  last  of  his  race.  The  friends  of 
the  establishment  had  looked  to  the  new  reign 
with  uneasy  apprehensions,  dreading  what  they 
called  the  Scotch  mist ;  but  James  was  a  person 
who  liked  fair  weather,  and  on  his  arrival  in 
England  he  soon  perceived  that  he  was  got  into  a 
better  climate. 

The  Puritans,  like  all  factious  minorities,  en- 
deavoured, by  activity,  to  make  amends  for  their 
want  of  numbers.  They  exerted  themselves  to  get 
men  of  their  opinions  returned  to  parliament . . . 
they  set  forth  books,  and  presented  what  they 
called  the  humble  petition  of  the  Thousand  Mi- 
nisters, (though  the  subscription  fell  short  of 
that  amount  by  some  hundreds,)  desiring  that 
the  offences  in  the  church  might  be  some  re- 
moved, some  amended,  and  some  qualified ;  offer- 
ing to  show  that  what  they  complained  of  as 
abuses  were  not  agreeable  to  the  scriptures,  if 
the  King  would  be  pleased  to  have  the  point  dis- 
cussed either  in  writing  or  by  conference  among 
the  learned.  The  true  sons  of  the  church  were 
not  idle  at  this  juncture  ;  both  universities  dis- 
claimed the  petition,  and  Oxford  in  its  answer 
represented  to  the  King  how  inconvenient  and 

vol.  n.  20 


306     CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [ciur. 


insufferable  it  was  in  Christian  policy  to  permit 
a  long  and  well-settled  state  of  government  to  be 
so  much  as  questioned,  much  more  to  be  altered 
for  a  few  of  his  subjects;  especially  considering 
the  matter  pretended  to  be  the  cause  of  these 
men's  griefs  and  of  their  desired  reformation, 
unjustly  so  called.  James,  however,  was  induced, 
as  much  by  inclination  as  a  sense  of  duty,  to  per- 
mit the  proposed  conference  ;  and  accordingly  it 
was  held  before  the  privy  council  at  Hampton 
Court,  the  King  himself  presiding  as  moderator, 
four  of  the  Puritan  clergy  being  summoned  as 
representatives  of  the  millenaries,  for  so  the  pe- 
titioners were  called. 

On  the  first  day  James  conferred  with  the 
Bishops  and  some  of  the  Deans  who  were  sum- 
moned with  them.  He  had  not  called  that  as- 
sembly, he  said,  for  any  innovation,  for  as  yet  he 
saw  no  cause  to  change,  but  rather  to  confirm 
what  was  well  settled.  Yet  because  nothing  can 
be  so  absolutely  ordered  but  that  something  may 
be  added  thereunto,  and  corruption  in  any  state 
will  insensibly  grow  either  through  time  or  per- 
sons, ...and  because  he  had  received  many  com- 
plaints of  many  disorders  and  much  disobedience 
to  the  laws,  with  a  great  falling  away  to  popery, . . . 
his  purpose  was,  like  a  good  physician,  to  examine 
and  try  the  complaints ;  and  fully  to  remove  the 
occasions  thereof,  if  scandalous  cure  them,  if 


xv!.]      CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  307 

dangerous,  .  . .  and  take  knowledge  of  them,  if  but 
frivolous  ;  thereby  to  cast  a  sop  to  Cerberus,  that 
he  might  bark  no  more.  And  he  had  called 
them  in  severally,  that  if  anything  should  be 
found  meet  to  be  redressed,  it  might  be  done 
without  visible  alteration.  There  were  some 
points  concerning  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer 
and  the  service  of  the  church  wherein  he  desired 
to  be  satisfied.  They  related  to  confirmation, . . . 
that  name  seeming  to  imply  that  baptism  is  of 
no  validity  without  it;  he  abhorred  this  opinion 
and  the  abuse  which  made  it  a  sacrament :  to  ab- 
solution, which  he  had  heard  likened  to  the  Pope's 
pardon ;  and  to  private  baptism,  which  if  it  meant 
that  any  beside  a  lawful  minister  might  baptize, 
he  utterly  disliked.  Upon  the  two  first  points 
the  Bishops  fully  satisfied  the  King :  upon  the 
third  he  retained  his  objection  to  the  custom 
which  allowed  midwives  or  other  persons  to  ad- 
minister baptism  in  case  of  necessity ;  and  the 
Bishops  were  ordered  to  consult,  whether  in  the 
rubric  which  then  left  it  indifferently  to  all,  the 
words  curate  or  lawful  minister  might  not  be  in- 
serted. He  propounded  also,  whether  the  name 
of  excommunication  might  not  be  altered  in  cases 
of  less  moment,  and  whether  some  other  mode 
of  coercion  might  not  be  substituted ;  and  to  this 
the  Bishops  easily  assented,  as  a  thing  which  had 
been  often  and  long  desired. 
20 


308    CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [chap. 


The  Puritans  were  called  in  on  the  second  day, 
and  Dr.  Reynolds  as  their  spokesman  stated,  all 
they  required  might  be  reduced  to  these  four 
heads,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  Church  might  be 
preserved  in  purity,  according  to  God's  word ; 
that  good  pastors  might  be  planted  in  all  churches 
to  preach  the  same  ;  that  the  church  government 
might  be  sincerely  ministered  according  to  God's 
word;  and  that  the  book  of  Common  Prayer 
might  be  fitted  to  more  increase  of  piety.  Con- 
cerning the  first  point,  he  requested  that  the 
Articles  of  the  Church  might  be  explained  where 
obscure,  and  enlarged  where  defective.  The  pur- 
port of  this  was,  that  they  might  be  made  de- 
cidedly Calvinistic,  for  which  end  he  would  have 
had  it  asserted  that  the  elect  can  never  totally  or 
finally  fall  from  a  state  of  grace,  and  would  have 
inserted  nine  propositions,  known  by  the  name  of 
Lambeth  Articles,  because  they  had  there  been 
sanctioned  by  Archbishop  Whitgift,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  terminating  a  controversy  at  Cambridge  ; 
but  they  had  never  been  set  forth  by  authority  ; 
on  the  contrary,  they  had  displeased  Elizabeth 
and  Burleigh,  who  justly  observed  that  such  te- 
nets charge  God  with  cruelty,  and  might  cause 
men  to  be  desperate  in  their  wickedness.  Se- 
condly, where  the  Articles  said  it  is  not  lawful 
for  any  in  the  congregation  to  preach  before  he 
is  lawfully  called;   he  wished  something  to  be 


xvi.]     CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  309 


altered,  because  the  words  seemed  to  imply  that 
one  who  was  not  of  the  congregation,  might 
preach  without  such  a  call,  And  thirdly,  he  ob- 
jected to  an  apparent  contradiction,  concerning 
confirmation,  which  in  one  place,  he  said,  was 
allowed  to  be  a  depraved  imitation  of  the  Apos- 
tles, and  in  another,  was  grounded  on  their  ex- 
ample. 

Upon  this,  Bancroft,  the  Bishop  of  London, 
reminded  the  King  of  the  ancient  canon  which 
declared  that  schismatics  were  not  to  be  heard 
against  Bishops  ;  and  of  the  decree  of  an  ancient 
council,  that  no  man  should  be  admitted  to  speak 
against  what  he  had  formerly  subscribed.  He 
told  the  Puritan  disputants  they  were  beholden 
to  the  King's  clemency,  for  allowing  them,  con- 
trary to  the  statute,  to  speak  thus  freely  against 
the  Liturgy  and  discipline  established.  "  Fain," 
said  he,  "  would  I  know  the  end  you  aim  at ; 
and  whether  you  be  not  of  Mr.  Cartwright's  mind, 
who  affirmed  that  we  ought  in  ceremonies  to  con- 
form to  the  Turks  rather  than  the  Papists.  I 
doubt  you  approve  his  position,  because  here  ap- 
pearing before  his  majesty  in  Turkey  gowns,  not 
in  your  scholastic  habits."  This  rebuke  they  well 
deserved;  but  James  reproved  the  interpretation. 
"  My  Lord  Bishop,"  said  he,  "  something  in  your 
passion  I  may  excuse,  and  something  I  must  mis- 
like.     I  may  excuse  you  thus  far,  that  I  think 


310     CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [chaf. 


you  have  just  cause  to  be  moved,  in  respect  that 
they  traduce  the  well  settled  government,  and 
also  proceed  in  so  indirect  a  course,  contrary  to 
their  own  pretence,  and  the  intent  of  this  meeting. 
I  mislike  your  interruption  of  Dr.  Reynolds,  whom 
you  should  have  suffered  to  have  taken  his  li- 
berty . .  .  Either  let  him  proceed,  or  frame  your 
answer  to  his  motions  already  made,  although  some 
of  them  are  very  needless." 

Bancroft  then  replied  to  the  observation  upon 
falling  from  grace  :  there  were  many,  he  said,  in 
those  days,  who  neglected  holiness  of  life,  pre- 
suming on  persisting  in  grace  upon  predestina- 
tion :  a  desperate  doctrine,  contrary  to  good 
divinity,  wherein  we  should  reason,  rather  by  as- 
cending than  descending,  . . .  from  our  obedience 
to  God,  and  love  of  our  neighbour,  to  our  elec- 
tion. The  King  said  he  approved  the  words  of 
the  Article,  as  consonant  to  those  of  the  Apostle, 
"  work  out  your  salvation  with  fear  and  trem- 
bling ;'"  and  he  desired  that  the  question  of  pre- 
destination might  be  tenderly  handled,  lest  on 
the  one  hand  God's  omnipotence  be  questioned, 
or  on  the  other,  a  desperate  presumption  arreared 
by  inferring  the  necessary  certainty  of  persisting 
in  Grace. 

The  contradiction  concerning  confirmation, 
which  Reynolds  had  imputed  to  the  Articles,  the 
King,  upon  examination,  pronounced  a  mere  cavil ; 


xvi  ]     CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  C  )URT. 


311 


with  regard  to  the  rite  itself,  Bancroft  observed 
that  Dr.  Reynolds  and  his  party  were  vexed  the 
use  of  it  was  not  in  their  own  hands,  for  every 
pastor  to  confirm  in  his  own  parish  ;  and  this 
was  admitted  on  their  part.  The  Bishop  of 
Winchester  then  asked  Reynolds  with  all  his 
learning,  to  show  him  when  confirmation  was 
used  in  ancient  times,  by  any  other  but  Bishops? 
and  the  King  declared  it  was  not  his  intention  to 
take  from  them  what  they  had  so  long  enjoyed. 
I  approve,  said  he,  the  calling  and  use  of  Bishops 
in  the  Church  ;  and  it  is  my  aphorism,  no  Bishop, 
no  King. 

The  next  objection  was,  that  the  Articles  in 
saying  the  Bishop  of  Rome  had  no  authority  in 
this  land,  were  not  sufficient  unless  it  were  added 
"  nor  ought  to  have  any."  To  this  the  King  pro- 
perly replied,  inasmuch  as  it  is  said  he  hath  not, 
it  is  plain  enough  that  he  ought  not  to  have. 
This  frivolous  objection  led  to  what  is  termed 
some  pleasant  discourse  between  James  and  the 
Lords  about  the  Puritans,  and  Bancroft  reminded 
the  King  of  what  Sully  had  said  upon  seeing  the 
service  of  the  English  Church,  that  if  the  Re- 
formed Churches  of  France  had  kept  the  same 
order,  there  would  have  been  thousands  of  pro- 
testants  more.  Reynolds  now  proposed  it  might 
be  added  to  the  Articles,  that  the  intention  of  the 
minister  is  not  of  the  essence  of  the  Sacrament ; 


312       CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [chat. 


a  motion  which  the  King  said  he  utterly  disliked, 
thinking  it  unfit  to  thrust  into  the  Articles  every 
position  negative,  which  would  swell  the  book  into 
a  volume  as  big  as  the  Bible,  and  confound  the 
reader.  In  this  way,  he  said,  one  M.  Craig  in 
Scotland,  with  his  multiplied  detestations  and 
abrenuntiations,  had  so  perplexed  and  amazed 
sim  le  people,  that  they  fell  back  to  Popery,  or 
remained  in  their  former  ignorance.  If  bound 
to  this  form,  "  the  confession  of  my  faith  must 
be  in  my  Table-book,  not  in  my  head."  Because 
you  speak  of  intention,  he  added,  I  will  apply  it 
thus.  If  you  come  hither  with  a  good  intention  to 
be  informed,  the  whole  work  will  sort  to  the  bet- 
ter effect.  But  if  your  intention  be  to  go  as  you 
came  (whatsoever  shall  be  said,)  it  will  prove  the 
intention  is  very  material  and  essential  to  the  end 
of  the  present  action. 

I  request,  said  Dr.  Reynolds,  that  one  uniform 
catechism  may  be  made,  and  none  other  generally 
received.  A  request  which  the  King  pronounced 
very  reasonable  ;  "  yet  so,"  he  added,  "  that  the 
catechism  be  made  in  the  fewest  and  plainest 
terms,  not  like  the  many  ignorant  catechisms  in 
Scotland,  set  forth  by  every  one  who  was  the  son 
of  a  good  man.  And  herein  I  would  have  two  rules 
observed ;  first,  that  curious  and  deep  questions 
be  avoided  in  the  fundamental  instruction  of  a  peo- 
ple ;  secondly,  that  there  should  not  be  so  gene- 


8 


xvi.]     CONFERENCE  AT  II UVTPTON  COURT.  313 

ral  a  departure  from  the  Papists,  that  every 
thing  should  be  accounted  an  error  wherein  we 
agree  with  them."  Reynolds  complained  that  the 
sabbath  was  profaned,  and  requested  that  the 
Bible  might  be  new  translated.  The  King  as- 
sented to  this,  saying  that  no  English  transla- 
tion was  good,  but  that  of  Geneva  was  the  worst ; 
and  he  noticed  the  tendency  of  the  marginal  notes 
in  that  Bible,  one  of  which  allowed  of  disobedi- 
ence to  kings,  and  another  censured  King  Asa, 
for  only  deposing  his  mother  for  idolatry,  instead 
of  killing  her.  But  he  added,  Surely  if  these 
were  the  greatest  matters  that  grieved  you,  I 
need  not  have  been  troubled  with  such  importu- 
nate complaints  !  The  next  request  of  Reynolds 
was,  that  unlawful  and  seditious  books  might  be 
supprest,  meaning  those  of  the  Romanists :  he 
was  answered  that  the  Bishop  of  London  had 
done  what  he  could  to  suppress  them  ;  but  that 
ceitain  controversial  ones  between  the  Secular 
priests  and  the  Jesuits,  were  permitted  for  the 
purpose  of  fomenting  the  division  between  them, 
and  also  because  in  those  books  the  pretended  ti- 
tle of  Spain  to  this  kingdom  was  confuted  ;  and  it 
appeared  in  them  by  the  testimony  of  the  priests 
themselves,  that  the  Papists,  who  were  put  to 
death  in  this  country,  suffered  not  for  conscience 
only,  but  for  treason. 

Reynolds  came    now  to  his  second  general 


314     CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [chak 


point,  and  desired  that  learned  ministers  might 
be  planted  in  every  parish.  James  replied  that 
the  Bishops  were  willing,  but  it  could  not  imme- 
diately be  done,  the  universities  not  affording 
them.  And  jet,  said  he,  they  afford  more 
learned  men  than  the  realm  doth  maintenance, 
which  must  be  first  provided.  In  the  meantime, 
ignorant  ministers,  if  young,  and  there  be  no 
hope  of  amendment,  are  to  be  removed ;  if  old, 
their  death  must  be  expected.  The  Bishop  of 
Winchester  remarked,  that  lay  patrons  were  a 
great  cause  of  the  evil  which  was  complained  of; 
for  if  the  Bishop  refused  to  admit  the  clerks 
whom  they  presented,  he  was  presently  served 
with  a  Quare  impedit.  Bancroft  then  knelt,  and 
begged  that  as  it  was  a  time  of  moving  petitions 
he  might  move  two  or  three  to  his  majesty  :  and 
first,  he  requested  that  there  might  be  a  praying 
ministry,  it  being  now  co  e  to  pass,  that  men 
thought  it  was  the  only  duty  of  ministers  to 
spend  their  time  in  the  pulpit.  I  like  your  mo- 
tion exceeding  Well,  replied  the  King,  and  dislike 
the  hypocrisy  of  our  times,  who  place  all  their 
religion  in  the  ear,  while  prayer  (so  requisite  and 
acceptable  if  duly  performed)  is  accounted  as 
the  least  part  of  religion.  Bancroft's  second  mo- 
tion was,  that,  till  learned  men  could  be  planted  in 
every  congregation,  the  homilies  might  be  read  ; 
the  King  approved  this  also,  especially  where 


xvi.]     CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  31f> 


the  living  was  not  sufficient  to  maintain  a  learned 
preacher;  and  the  Puritan  divines  expressed  their 
assent.  The  Chancellor,  Lord  Ellesmere,  object- 
ed to  pluralities,  saying  he  wished  some  might 
have  single  coats,  before  others  had  doublets. 
Bancroft  admitted  the  general  principle,  but  said 
a  doublet  was  necessary  in  cold  weather.  His 
iast  motion  was,  that  pulpits  might  not  be  made 
pasquils,  wherein  every  discontented  fellow  might 
traduce  his  superiors.  The  pulpit  is  no  place  of 
personal  reproof,  said  the  King.  Let  them  com- 
plain to  me  if  injured  ;  first  to  the  Ordinary,  from 
him  to  the  Archbishop,  from  him  to  the  Lords  of 
the  Council,  and  if  in  all  these  no  remedy  be  found, 
then  to  myself. 

After  this  episode  Dr.  Reynolds  requested  that 
subscription  might  not  be  exacted  as  theretofore  ; 
many  good  men,  he  said,  being  unwilling  to  sub- 
scribe, because  the  Apocrypha  was  enjoined  to 
be  read  in  the  churches,  although  some  chapters 
therein  were  repugnant  to  scripture.  The  King 
desired  him  to  note  those  chapters,  and  bring 
them  to  the  primate,  saying  he  would  have  none 
read  in  the  church,  wherein  any  error  was  con- 
tained. A  wretched  cavil  against  subscription 
was  next  made,  because  in  the  Dominical  Cos- 
pels  it  was  twice  set  down,  Jesus  said  to  his  dis- 
ciples, where  by  the  original  context  it  appears 
that  he  spake  to  the  Pharisees.    Let  the  word 


316    CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [chap. 


Disciples  be  omitted,  said  the  King,  and  the  words 
Jesus  said,  be  printed  in  a  different  letter.  Mr. 
Knewstubs  now  spake  for  the  Puritans,  and  ob- 
jected to  the  baptismal  service.  He  instanced  the 
cross  in  baptism,  whereat,  said  he,  the  weak  bre- 
thren are  offended  contrary  to  the  counsel  of  the 
Apostle.  "  How  long  will  such  brethren  be 
weak  ?"  replied  the  King.  "  Are  not  forty-five 
years  sufficient  for  them  to  grow  strong  in  ?  Be- 
sides who  pretends  this  weakness  ?  We  require 
not  subscriptions  of  laicks  and  idiots,  but  of  preach- 
ers and  ministers,  Avho  are  not  still  (I  trow)  to  be 
fed  with  milk,  being  enabled  to  feed  others.  Some 
of  them  are  strong  enough,  if  not  headstrong  : 
conceiving  themselves  able  to  teach  him  who  last 
spake  for  them,  and  all  the  Bishops  of  the  land." 
The  antiquity  of  the  use  of  the  cross  as  a  signifi- 
cant sign  was  shown,  and  the  power  of  the  Church 
to  institute  such  ceremonies  was  asserted ;  but 
Knewstubs  observed  the  greatest  scruple  was,  how 
far  the  ordinance  of  the  church  bindeth,  without 
impeaching  christian  liberty? 

This  was  coming  to  the  point ;  and  James,  who 
had  hitherto  behaved  with  his  characteristic  good 
nature,  warmly  replied,  "  I  will  not  argue  that 
point  with  you,  but  answer  as  Kings  in  Parlia- 
ment, Le  Roy  s'avisera.  This  is  like  M.  John 
Black,  a  beardless  boy,  who  told  me  the  last  con- 
ference in  Scotland,  that  he  would  hold  confor 


xvi.]      CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  317 


mity  with  his  Majesty,  in  matters  of  doctrine,  but 
every  man  for  ceremonies  was  to  be  left  to  his 
own  liberty.  But  I  will  have  none  of  that !  1  will 
have  one  doctrine,  one  discipline,  one  religion  in 
substance  and  in  ceremony.  Never  speak  more 
to  that  point,  how  far  you  are  bound  to  obey!" 
Here  Reynolds  interposed,  with  a  wish  that  the 
cross  were  abandoned,  as  the  Brasen  Serpent  had 
been  destroyed  by  Hezekiah,  because  it  had  been 
abused  to  Idolatry.  Inasmuch  as  the  cross  was  abused 
to  superstition,  in  time  of  Popery,  replied  the  King, 
"  it  doth  plainly  imply  that  it  was  well  used  be- 
fore. I  detest  their  courses  who  peremptorily  dis- 
allow of  all  things  which  have  been  abused  to 
Popery ;  and  I  know  not  how  to  answer  the  ob- 
jections of  the  Papists,  when  they  charge  us  with 
novelties,  but  by  telling  them  we  retain  the  pri- 
mitive use  of  things,  and  only  forsake  their  novel 
corruptions  . . .  Material  crosses  to  which  people 
fell  down  in  time  of  Popery,  (as  the  idolatrous 
Jews  to  the  Brasen  Serpent)  are  already  demo- 
lished. 

I  take  exception,  quoth  Knewstubs,  at  the  sur- 
plice, a  garment  used  by  the  priests  of  Isis.  "  I 
thought  till  of  late,"  replied  James,  returning  to 
his  good  nature,  "  it  had  been  a  rag  of  Popery. 
Seeing  that  we  border  not  upon  Heathens  now, 
neither  are  any  of  them  conversant  with,  or  com- 
morant  amongst  us,  thereby  to  be  confirmed  in 


318   CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  [chaf. 


Paganism,  I  see  no  reason,  but  for  comeliness-sake 
it  may  be  continued." ..."  I  take  exception,"  said 
Dr.  Reynolds,  "  at  these  words  in  the  marriage 
service,  with  my  body  I  thee  worship."  James 
made  answer,  "  I  was  made  believe  the  phrase 
imported  no  less  than  divine  adoration,  but  find 
it  an  usual  English  term,  as  when  we  say  a 
gentlemen  of  worship;  and  it  agreeth  with  the 
Scriptures,  giving  honour  to  the  wife.  As  for 
you,  Dr.  Reynolds,"  with  a  smile,  he  continued, 
"many  men  speak  of  Robin  Hood,  who  never 
shot  in  his  bow.  If  you  had  a  good  wife  your- 
self, you  would  think  all  worship  and  honour 
you  could  do  her,  were  well  bestowed." ...  It  was 
then  observed,  that  objections  were  made  to  the 
ring  in  marriage  ;  Reynolds  said,  "  he  approved  it 
well  enough,  but  that  some  took  exceptions  at 
the  churching  of  women;"  Upon  which  the  King 
remarked,  "that  women  being  loath  of  them- 
selves to  come  to  church,  he  liked  that,  or  any  oth- 
er occasion  to  draw  them  thither."  "  Mv  last  ex- 
ception," said  the  Doctor,  "  is  against  committing 
ecclesiastical  censures  to  Lay-Chancellors  :"  James 
replied,  "  he  had  conferred  with  his  Bishops  upon 
that  point,  and  such  order  should  be  taken  therein 
as  was  convenient :"  and  he  bade  him  proceed  to 
some  other  matters. 

Reynolds  then  desired  that  the  clergy  might 
have  meetings  every  three  weeks,  first  in  rural 


xvi.]    CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  319 


deaneries,  where  he  wished  to  have  those  dis- 
cussions of  scriptural  and  theological  questions 
by  way  of  exercise,  called  prophesyings,  which 
Elizabeth  had  wisely  suppressed  as  being  schools 
of  disputation  and  seminaries  of  schism:  such 
things  as  could  not  be  resolved  there,  he  pro- 
posed should  be  referred  to  the  archdeacon's 
visitations,  and  so  by  a  further  appeal,  if  needed, 
to  the  episcopal  synod.  "  If  you  aim  at  a  Scot- 
tish presbytery,"  replied  the  King,  "  it  agreeth 
as  well  with  monarchy  as  God  and  the  Devil. 
Then  Jack  and  Torn,  and  Will  and  Dick,  shall 
meet  and  censure  me  and  my  council.  Therefore 
I  reiterate  my  former  speech,  Le  Roy  s'avisera. 
Stay,  I  pray,  for  one  seven  years  before  you  de- 
mand that !  and  then  if  you  find  me  grow  pursy 
and  fat,  I  may,  perchance,  hearken  unto  you,  for 
that  government  will  keep  me  in  breath,  and 
give  me  work  enough.  1  shall  speak  of  one 
matter  more,  somewhat  out  of  order,  but  it 
skilleth  not.  Dr.  Reynolds,  you  have  often 
spoken  for  my  supremacy,  and  it  is  well :  but 
know  you  any  here,  or  elsewhere,  who  like  of 
the  present  government  ecclesiastical,  and  dis- 
like my  supremacy  ?"  Reynolds  replied  that  he 
knew  none.  "Why  then,"  continued  James,  "I 
will  tell  you  a  tale.  After  that  the  religion  esta- 
blished by  King  Edward  VI.  was  soon  over- 
thrown by  Queen  Mary,  we  in  Scotland  felt  the 


320       CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [chap 


effect  of  it.  For  thereupon,  M.  Knox  writes  to 
the  Queen  Regent,  (a  virtuous  and  moderate 
lady,)  telling  her  that  she  was  the  Supreme 
Head  of  the  Church ;  and  charged  her,  as  she 
would  answer  it  at  God's  tribunal,  to  take  care 
of  Christ  his  evangil,  in  suppressing  the  Popish 
prelates  who  withstood  the  same.  But  how  long, 
trow  you,  did  this  continue  ?  Even  till  by  her 
authority  the  Popish  Bishops  were  repressed, 
and  Knox  with  his  adherents,  being  brought  in, 
made  strong  enough.  Then  began  they  to  make 
small  account  of  her  supremacy,  when,  according 
to  that  more  light  wherewith  they  were  illumi- 
nated, they  made  a  further  reformation  of  them- 
selves. How  they  used  the  poor  lady  my  mother, 
is  not  unknown,  and  how  they  dealt  with  me  in 
my  minority.  I  thus  apply  it !  My  lords  the 
Bishops,  I  may  thank  you  that  these  men  plead 
thus  for  my  supremacy  !  They  think  they  can- 
not make  their  party  good  against  you,  but  by 
appealing  unto  it :  but  if  once  you  were  out  and 
they  in,  I  know  what  would  become  of  my  supre- 
macy, for  No  bishop,  no  King.  I  have  learned 
of  what  cut  they  have  been,  who,  preaching  be- 
fore me  since  my  coming  into  England,  past  over 
with  silence  my  being  supreme  Governor  in 
causes  ecclesiastical . . .  Well,  Doctor,  have  you 
any  thing  else  to  say  ?"  Reynolds  replied,  "  No 
more,  if  it  please  your  Majesty."    Then  said  the 


xvi.]    CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  321 


King,  "  if  this  be  all  your  party  hath  to  say,  I  will 
make  them  conform,  or  harrie  them  out  of  the 
land, ...  or  else  do  worse  !" 

On  the  following  day  such  alterations  (if  so 
they  may  be  called)  in  the  liturgy,  as  the  King 
had  assented  to,  were  laid  before  him  and  ap- 
proved. They  were  as  trifling  as  the  objections 
which  had  been  offered.  Absolution  was  defined 
by  the  words  remission  of  sins.  To  the  confirma- 
tion of  children,  the  word  examination  was 
added ;  and  in  the  Dominical  gospels,  Jesus  said 
to  them,  was  twice  substituted  for  Jesus  said  to 
his  disciples.  Private  baptism  was  only  to  be 
performed  by  lawful  ministers  ;  no  part  of  the 
apocrypha  which  appeared  repugnant  to  the  ca- 
nonical scripture  was  to  be  read.  Some  limita- 
tion of  the  bishop's  jurisdiction  was  to  be  made ; 
and  excommunication,  as  it  was  then  used,  to  be 
taken  away  both  in  name  and  nature,  instead  of 
which,  a  writ  out  of  Chancery  Avas  to  be  framed 
for  punishing  the  contumacious.  Schools  and 
preachers  were  to  be  provided  where  they  were 
needed  as  soon  as  might  be ;  and  where  plurali- 
ties were  allowed,  which  was  to  be  as  seldom  as 
possible,  the  livings  were  to  be  near  each  other, 
and  the  incumbent  was  to  maintain  a  preacher 
at  the  one  which  he  did  not  serve  himself.  One 
catechism  was  to  be  made  and  used  in  all  places, 
and  order  to  be  taken  for  an  uniform  translation 

vol.  11.  21 


322      CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [chap. 


of  the  Bible.  These  points  having  been  settled, 
the  King  inquired  into  the  complaints  against 
the  High  Court  of  Commission,  namely,  that  the 
persons  named  in  the  commission  were  too  many 
and  too  mean,  and  the  matters  which  were 
brought  before  them,  base,  and  such  as  the  ordi- 
naries might  censure  at  home.  To  this  Whitgift 
replied,  that  it  was  requisite  their  number  should 
be  many,  and  that  there  should  be  some  persons 
among  them  whose  attendance  he  might  com- 
mand in  the  absence  of  the  lords  of  the  council, 
bishops  and  judges,  otherwise  he  should  often 
be  forced  to  sit  alone.  Touching  the  business 
of  the  matters  which  were  brought  before  them, 
he  had  often  complained,  but  could  not  remedy 
it :  for  though  the  offence  were  small,  the  offender 
oftentimes  was  so  great  and  contumacious,  that 
the  ordinary  dared  not  punish  him,  and  so  was 
forced  to  crave  help  at  the  high  commission.  It 
was  complained  that  the  branches  granted  out 
by  the  bishops  in  their  several  dioceses  were  too 
frequent  and  too  large;  Whitgift  admitted  this, 
and  said  they  had  often  been  granted  against  his 
will,  and  generally  without  his  knowledge.  He 
vindicated  the  High  Court  from  the  charge  of 
proceeding  like  the  Inquisition.  And  James  de- 
clared his  opinion  that  reports  and  scandals  were 
to  be  looked  to  by  ecclesiastical  courts,  and  yet 
great  moderation  was  to  be  used  therein.  He 


xvi.]     CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  323 


then  spoke  concerning  the  necessity  and  use  of 
the  oath  ex  officio,  so  much  in  accord  with  those 
who  heard  him,  that  Whitgift  said  undoubtedly 
he  spake  by  the  special  assistance  of  the  Spirit  ; 
and  Bancroft  protested  his  heart  melted  with  joy 
that  God  in  his  mercy  had  given  them  a  King 
whose  like  had  never  been  seen  in  Christendom. 
The  language  of  gross  adulation  had  long  been 
common  in  the  English  court;  Elizabeth's  cour- 
tiers were  hardly  conscious  of  servility  when  they 
addressed  it  to  a  woman ;  they  transferred  it 
habitually  to  her  successor  ;  and  when  the  pre- 
lates used  it  on  this  occasion,  unworthy  as  it  may 
well  appear  to  us,  it  proceeded  as  much  from 
habit  as  from  delight  at  finding  the  King's  opi- 
nions upon  church  government,  which  had  been 
greatly  doubted,  in  such  entire  conformity  with 
their  own. 

The  Puritan  representatives  were  now  called 
in,  and  the  alterations  in  the  liturgy  were  shown 
them,  to  which  they  assented  in  silence.  I  see, 
said  James,  the  exceptions  against  the  commu- 
nion book  are  matters  of  weakness  ;  therefore,  if 
the  reluctant  persons  be  discreet,  they  will  be 
won  betimes  and  by  good  persuasions  ;  if  indis- 
creet, better  they  were  removed,  for  by  their  fac- 
tions many  are  driven  to  the  Papists.  From  you, 
Dr.  Reynolds,  and  your  associates,  I  expect  obe- 
dience and  humility,  the  marks  of  honest  and 


324    CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT,  [chap. 


good  men;  and  that  you  would  persuade  others 
by  your  example.  Reynolds  replied,  we  do  here 
promise  to  perform  all  duties  to  bishops  as  re- 
verend fathers,  and  to  join  with  them  against  the 
common  adversary,  for  the  quiet  of  the  church. 
One  of  his  colleagues  requested  that  the  surplice 
and  the  use  of  the  cross  might  not  be  forced  on 
certain  godly  ministers  in  Lancashire,  lest  many 
whom  they  had  won  by  their  preaching  should 
revolt  to  popery.  The  King  made  answer,  "  it 
is  not  my  purpose,  and  I  dare  say  it  is  not  the 
bishops'  intent,  presently,  and  out  of  hand,  to 
enforce  these  things  without  fatherly  admonitions, 
conferences  and  persuasions  premised.  But  I 
wish  it  were  examined  whether  such  Lancashire 
ministers  by  their  pains  and  preaching  have  con- 
verted any  from  popery,  and  withal  be  men  of 
honest  life  and  quiet  conversation.  If  so,  let 
letters  be  written  to  the  Bishop  of  Chester  that 
some  favour  may  be  afforded  them.  Upon  this 
Bancroft  remarked  that  the  copy  of  those  let- 
ters would  fly  all  over  England,  all  non-con- 
formists would  make  the  like  request,  and  in- 
stead of  any  fruit  following  from  this  conference, 
things  would  be  worse  than  they  were  before. 
He  desired,  therefore,  that  a  time  might  be  li- 
mited within  which  they  should  conform,  and 
the  King  signified  his  assent.  Mr.  Knewstubs 
then  requested  the  like  forbearance  toward  some 


xvi.]     CONFERENCE  AT  HAMPTON  COURT.  325 


honest  ministers  in  Suffolk,  for  it  will  make  much 
against  their  credits  in  the  country,  said  he,  to 
be  now  forced  to  the  surplice,  and  the  cross  in 
baptism.  Nay,  Sir,  said  Whitgift,  beginning  to 
reply  .  .  .  when  James  interrupted  him,  saying, 
"  Let  me  alone  to  answer  him.  Sir,  you  show 
yourself  an  uncharitable  man.  We  have  here 
taken  pains,  and  in  the  end  have  concluded  on 
unity  and  uniformity ;  and  you,  forsooth,  must  pre- 
fer the  credits  of  a  few  private  men  before  the 
peace  of  the  church.  This  is  just  the  Scotch 
argument  when  any  thing  was  concluded  which 
disliked  some  humours.  Let  them  either  con- 
form themselves  shortly,  or  they  shall  hear  of  it !" 
Some  improprieties  on  the  part  of  the  non-con- 
formists were  noticed  by  Cecil  and  Bancroft ;  but 
James  said,  No  more  hereof  for  the  present,  see- 
ing they  have  jointly  promised  to  be  quiet  and 
obedient.  And  there  the  conferences  ended, 
"  wherein,"  says  Fuller,  "  how  discreetly  the  King 
carried  himself,  posterity,  out  of  the  reach  of 
flattery,  is  the  most  competent  judge." 

The  Puritans  disowned  their  representatives 
when  they  found  how  the  conference  had  con- 
cluded. They  complained  that  the  ministers  who 
had  appeared  for  them  were  not  of  their  own 
choosing ;  that  they  had  argued  as  if  the  cere- 
monies to  which  they  objected  were  indifferent 
instead  of  sinful,  had  barely  propounded  the 


326 


THE  BIBLE. 


[chap. 


points  in  controversy  which  they  brought  for- 
ward, and  had  wholly  omitted  others.  The  con- 
ference, however,  was  not  useless  ;  it  showed  how 
insignificant  the  objections  were  which  the  most 
discreet  and  learned  of  their  party  could  advance 
when  they  were  called  upon  to  state  them  ;  and 
it  produced  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible,  upon 
which  seven  and  forty  of  the  most  learned  men 
in  England  were  employed,  Reynolds  and  one 
of  his  colleagues  being  of  the  number.  They 
were  instructed  to  keep  as  close  to  the  version 
then  in  use,  as  was  consistent  with  fidelity  to  the 
original.  A  truly  admirable  translation  was  thus 
completed,  wherein,  after  the  great  advances 
which  have  been  made  in  oriental  and  biblical 
learning,  no  error  of  main  importance  has  been 
discovered.  Minor  ones  inevitably  there  are  ; 
and  whenever  it  may  be  deemed  expedient,  after 
this  example,  to  correct  them,  we  may  trust  that 
the  diction  will  be  preserved  in  all  other  parts 
with  scrupulous  veneration,  and  that  no  attempt 
will  be  made  to  alter  what  it  is  impossible  to 
improve. 

The  marriage  of  the  clergy,  which  Elizabeth 
had  reluctantly  suffered,  but  never  could  be  per- 
suaded to  legitimate,  was  made  lawful  now  by 
reviving  the  statute  of  Edward  VI.  :  and  an  effec- 
tual stop  was  put  to  the  alienation  of  church  lands 
by  an  act.  whereby  all  grants  or  leases  of  such  tn 


XVI.] 


SYNOD  OF  DORT. 


32« 


any  person,  even  the  King  himself,  for  more  than 
one  and  twenty  years,  were  declared  void.  James 
was,  indeed,  sincerely  desirous  of  promoting  the 
welfare  of  the  church.    Through  his  means  F. 
Paolo  Sarpi's  admirahle  History  of  the  Council 
of  Trent  was  composed  and  given  to  the  world; 
in  which  the  intrigues  and  secret  springs  of  that 
assembly  were  laid  open  by  one  of  the  best  and 
wisest  members  of  the  Romish  communion.  And 
when  the  first  general  synod  of  the  Protestants 
was  held  at  Dort,  it  was  owing  to  the  influence 
of  the  English  divines,  that  its  sanction  was  not 
given  to  the  monstrous  doctrine  of  the  Supralap- 
sarians.    The  proceedings  of  the  synod  were  suf- 
ficiently disgraceful    without   coming   to  such  a 
conclusion  ;    nevertheless    the    abominable  doc- 
trine that  the  Almighty  has  placed  the  greater 
part  of  mankind  under  a  fatal  necessity  of  com- 
mitting the  offences,  for  which  he  has  predeter- 
mined eternally  to  punish  them,  from  that  time 
lost  ground.     But  it  became  the  distinguishing 
tenet  of  the  non-conformists ;  it  increased  their 
strength,  because  those  clergy  who  agreed  with 
them  at  first  in  this  point  alone,  gradually  be- 
came political,  as  well    as   doctrinal  Puritans; 
and  it  exasperated  the  implacable  spirit  of  dis- 
sent, by  filling  them  with  a  spiritual   pride  as 
intolerant  as  it  was  intolerable  ;  lor  fancying  that 
they  were  the  favourites  and  elect  of  the  A!- 


328 


JAMES  I. 


[chap. 


mighty,  they  looked  upon  all  who  were  not  with 
them  as  the  reprobate ;  and  presuming  that  hea- 
ven was  their's  by  sure  inheritance,  they  were 
ready  on  the  first  opportunity  to  claim  the  earth 
also  by  the  same  title. 

If  few  men  have  been  betrayed  into  greater 
faults  than  James  by  mere  facility  of  temper, 
there  are  few  whom  posterity  has  so  unjustly 
depreciated.  His  talents  were  quick  and  lively, 
his  understanding  sound,  and  his  acquirements 
such  as  fairly  entitled  him  to  a  place  among  the 
learned  men  of  his  age.  As  he  grew  older  he 
perceived  wherein  his  opinions  had  been  erro- 
neous, and  he  was  not  ashamed  to  acknowledge 
and  act  upon  the  conviction  of  his  maturer  mind. 
He  had  written  a  treatise  upon  demonology ;  and 
yet,  in  consequence  of  what  he  afterwards  ob- 
served, and  the  discovery  of  many  impostures 
which  were  detected  by  his  sagacity,  he  was 
perhaps  the  first  person  who  shook  off  the  super- 
stitious belief  of  witchcraft,  and  openly  pro- 
claimed its  falsehood.  He  had  been  bred  up  in 
Calvinism,  and  therefore,  at  one  time,  regarded 
the  Arminian  opinions  with  abhorrence :  upon 
this  point  also,  his  mind  underwent  a  salutary 
change :  and  perceiving  that  the  discussion  tend- 
ed to  promote  any  thing,  rather  than  devotion 
and  charity,  he  enjoined  all  preachers  to  ab- 
stain from  such   perilous  and  unprofitable  ques- 


XVI.] 


JAMES  I. 


329 


tions ;  but  in  this  instance  his  authority  proved 
as  inefficient  as  that  of  the  papacy,  when  it  was 
exerted  afterwards  with  the  same  intent.  He 
had  been  taught,  like  all  his  contemporaries,  to 
believe  that  heresy  was  high  treason  against  the 
Almighty,  and  therefore  to  be  punished  with 
death.  But  when  a  Socinian  had  suffered  mar- 
tyrdom in  Smithfield,  and  one,  who  seems  rather 
to  have  been  crazed  than  heretical,  at  Litchfield, 
James  perceived  that  such  executions  were  im- 
politic, and  though  his  abhorrence  of  the  offence 
was  not  abated,  felt  also  that  they  outraged  the 
heart  of  man.  A  Spanish  Arian,  therefore,  who 
had  been  condemned  to  the  same  dreadful  death, 
was  left  in  prison  as  long  as  he  lived ;  and  if 
other  cases  of  the  like  kind  had  occurred,  it  was 
the  King's  intention  never  to  make  another 
martyr. 

If  he  had  proposed  to  repeal  the  law,  an  out- 
cry would  have  been  raised  by  zealots  at  home; 
and  Protestants,  as  well  as  Romanists  abroad, 
would  have  regarded  it  as  a  scandal  in  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  The  principle  of  toleration  waa 
acknowledged  no  where ;  that  which  existed  in 
France  was  but  an  armed  truce,  during  which 
both  parties  retained  their  implacable  animosity 
against  each  other.  In  this  respect,  James  was 
advanced  beyond  his  country  and  his  age.  He 
saw  in  the  Romish  Church,  much  that  ought  for 


330  GUNPOWDER  TREASON.  [chap. 


ever  to  prevent  its  re-establishment  in  these  king- 
doms, but  nothing  for  which  the  bonds  of  Chris- 
tian charity  ought  to  be  broken ;  and  if  his  de- 
sires and  purposes  had  not  been  frustrated  by 
the  temper  of  the  nation,  and  the  spirit  of  the 
times,  England  would  then  have  been  placed 
upon  that  just  footing  with  Rome,  and  with  the 
Catholic  parts  of  Christendom,  from  which  the 
Protestant  cause  would  have  had  every  thing  to 
hope,  and  nothing  to  fear. 

Hostile  as  the  nation  was  to  these  conciliatory 
views,  its  vindictive  feelings  toward  the  Catholics 
were  violently  exasperated  by  the  discovery  of 
the  gunpowder  plot.  That  atrocious  treason 
was  devised  by  a  few  bigots,  who  had  become 
furious,  when  their  hopes  of  bringing  about  a 
Spanish  invasion  were  frustrated  by  the  peace 
with  Spain.  The  English  Catholics,  as  a  body, 
were  innocent  of  it :  but  the  opprobrium  which  it 
brought  upon  their  Church  was  not  unjust,  be- 
cause Guy  Fawkes  and  his  associates  acted  upon 
the  same  principles  as  the  head  of  that  Church, 
when,  in  his  arrogated  infallibility,  he  fulminated 
his  bulls  against  Elizabeth,  struck  medals  in 
honour  of  the  Bartholomew  massacre,  and  pro- 
nounced that  the  friar  who  assassinated  Henri 
III.  had  performed  "  a  famous  and  memorable 
act,  not  without  the  special  providence  of  God, 
and  the  suggestion  and  assistance  of  the  Holy 


XVI.] 


JAMES  L 


331 


Spirit  !"  The  ringleaders  were  not  men  of  des- 
perate fortunes,  but  of  family  and  condition, 
some  of  them  possessed  of  rank  and  affluence, 
and  actually  enjoying  the  King's  favour.  If  they 
had  felt  any  compunctious  scruples,  the  sanction 
of  their  ghostly  fathers  quieted  such  doubts  ;  and 
when  one  of  their  confessors,  the  Jesuit  Garnet, 
suffered  for  his  share  in  the  treason,  it  was  pre- 
tended that  a  portrait  of  the  sufferer  was  miracu- 
lously formed  by  his  blood,  upon  the  straw  with 
which  the  scaffold  was  strewn;  the  likeness  was 
miraculously  multiplied,  a  print  of  the  wonder, 
with  suitable  accompaniments,  was  published  at 
Rome ;  Garnet  in  consequence  received  the  ho- 
nour of  beatification  from  the  Pope,  and  the  so- 
ciety to  which  he  belonged  enrolled  him  in  their 
books  as  a  martyr. 

The  Parliament  thought  it  necessary  upon  this 
discovery  that  an  oath  of  allegiance  should  be 
required  from  every  Catholic ;  the  Pope  forbade 
them  to  take  it  as  being  injurious  to  his  autho- 
rity, and  therefore  destructive  to  their  own  souls, 
It  was,  however  taken  without  apparent  scruple 
or  reluctance  ;  but  Catholic  writers,  of  the  first 
eminence  abroad,  maintained  the  Papal  preten- 
sions in  their  whole  extent ;  and  the  Protestants 
were  thus  confirmed  in  their  opinion,  that  the 
doctrine  of  equivocation,  which  was  publicly 
taught  by  the  Romish  casuists,  and  the  belief  of 


332 


BANCROFT. 


[chap. 


the  Pope's  absolute  power,  rendered  it  impossible 
to  confide  in  the  oaths  of  men,  whose  consciences 
Were  not  in  their  own  keeping.  The  effect  was 
injurious  to  all  parties,  and  deeply  so  to  the  na- 
tion. It  frustrated  the  conciliatory  views  of  a 
good-natured  King,  and  a  wise  administration  : 
and  it  strengthened  that  acrimonious  faction, 
whose  sole  ground  of  quarrel  with  the  Church  of 
England  was,  that  it  had  not  separated  as  widely 
as  possible  from  the  Romanists  in  all  forms  and 
ceremonies.  But  the  growth  of  that  faction  con- 
firmed the  Romanists  in  their  attachment  to  the 
old  superstition,  with  all  its  enormities  and  errors; 
for  they,  who  seeing  the  moderation,  the  decorum, 
and  the  stability  of  the  establishment,  might  gra- 
dually, like  so  many  others,  have  been  drawn 
within  its  pale,  were  deterred,  when  they  saw  its 
moderation  reproached,  its  decorum  insulted,  and 
its  stability  threatened.  They  apprehended,  with 
too  much  reason,  that  the  temper  which  had  oc- 
casioned so  utterly  unwarrantable  a  schism  would 
lead  to  the  wildest  anarchy  of  fanatical  opinions; 
and  they  adhered,  therefore,  the  more  tena- 
ciously to  a  Church  Avhich  was  liable  to  no  such 
danger. 

Bancroft,  who  succeeded  Whitgift  in  the  pri- 
macy, pursued  the  proper  course  of  ejecting  from 
their  benefices,  all  such  ministers  as  would  not 
conform  to  the  rules  of  the  Church.    They  were 


XVI.] 


BANCROFT. 


333 


few  in  number,  and  yet  (his  was  complained  of 
as  one  of  the  most  grievous  persecutions  recorded 
in  history!  Had  Bancroft  confined  himself  to 
this,  acting  uniformly  upon  the  plain  principle, 
that  they  who  entered  into  the  service  of  the 
Church  were  bound  to  observe  its  institutions, 
his  conduct  would  have  been  equally  politic  and 
just.  A  minister  estimable  in  all  respects,  sav- 
ing that  he  troubled  himself  and  others  with 
those  busy  scrupulosities  which  were  the  disease 
of  the  party,  told  him  in  private,  that  it  went 
against  his  conscience  to  conform,  and  therefore 
he  must  submit  to  be  deprived.  Bancroft  asked 
him  how  then  he  would  be  able  to  subsist  ?  He 
replied,  "  that  nothing  remained,  but  to  put  him- 
self on  divine  Providence,  and  go  a-begging."  . . 
"  You  shall  not  need  that,"  the  primate  answered, 
"  come  to  me,  and  I  will  take  order  for  your 
maintenance."  There  was  a  spirit  of  true  bene- 
volence in  this,  that  might  have  prevailed  with 
tempers  which  no  rigour  could  subdue.  But 
Bancroft  had  neither  the  wisdom  nor  the  mode- 
ration of  Parker  and  Whitgift.  He  framed  ca- 
nons by  which  all  persons  who  spoke  in  dero- 
gation of  the  Church  of  Enp-land,  either  as 
related  to  its  doctrine  or  discipline,  were  to  be 
excommunicated,  ipso  facto.  The  laws  against 
libels  were  already  too  severe.  And  with  an 
impolicy  gross  as  his  intolerance,  when  several 


334 


ABBOT. 


[chap. 


Puritan  families  migrated  to  Virginia,  that  they 
might  form  a  church  there,  according  to  their 
own  opinions,  and  great  numbers  were  preparing 
to  follow  them;  this  imprudent  Primate,  instead 
of  rejoicing  that  so  many  intractable  spirits  were 
willing  to  transport  themselves  out  of  the  coun- 
try, obtained  a  proclamation  whereby  they  were 
forbidden  to  leave  it  without  a  special  license  from 
the  King. 

Bancroft's  rigour  was  less  injurious  to  the 
Church,  than  the  counter-conduct  of  his  succes- 
sor Abbot ;  a  man  who  inclined  to  the  Puritans, 
first,  because  he  sympathized  with  them  as  a 
Calvinist,  and  afterwards  as  a  malecontent  con- 
nived at  nonconformity.  Bancroft  had  nearly 
succeeded  in  weeding  out  the  discontented  minis- 
ters, who  sought  to  subvert  the  Church  in  whose 
service  they  had  engaged;  under  Abbot's  patron- 
age they  became  numerous  enough  to  form  a 
formidable  party,  and  to  perceive  that  success 
was  within  reach  as  well  as  hope.  At  the  same 
time  the  temper  with  which  he  acted  in  the  High 
Commission  gave  just  couse  of  general  offence. 
Whitgift  had  left  only  eight  causes  in  that  Court; 
during  Abbot's  primacy  they  increased  more 
than  an  hundred-fold,  and  as  more  causes  were 
unwisely  brought  under  its  cognizance,  greater 
severity  was  shown  toward  the  offenders.  It  had 
been  Bancroft's    practice,  gravely  to  admonish 


JAMES  I. 


335 


and  reprove,  but  to  pass  mild  sentences ;  under 
Abbot,  wbose  disposition  was  as  austere  as  his 
opinions, enormous  fines  were  imposed;  and  thus  a 
tribunal,  which  the  ablest  of  British  statesmen  had 
deemed  it  necessary  to  establish,  and  of  which, 
while  it  was  administered  according  to  the  spirit 
of  its  institution,  none  but  the  guilty  stood  in  fear, 
became  a  reproach  to  the  state,  and  a  grievance 
to  the  subject. 


336 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


CHARLES  I.     TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS. 

The  condition  of  the  church  at  James's  death 
was,  to  all  outward  appearance,  flourishing  as  its 
truest  friends  could  have  desired.  It  was  looked 
upon  as  the  head  of  the  reformed  churches,  ho- 
noured by  foreign  Protestants,  and  dreaded  by 
the  enemies  of  the  Reformation.  The  world  did 
not  contain  men  of  stronger  talents,  sounder  learn- 
ing, and  tnore  exemplary  lives,  than  were  to  be 
found  among  its  ministers ;  their  worth  was  soon 
to  be  tried  and  proved  in  the  furnace  of  adver- 
sity, and  their  works  have  stood  and  will  con- 
tinue to  stand  the  test  of  time.  They  had  main- 
tained their  cause  with  consummate  ability  against 
the  Papists  on  one  hand,  and  the  Puritans  on  the 
other;  and  their  triumph  was  as  complete  as  their 
cause  was  good.  But  it  is  not  by  reason  that 
such  struggles  are  terminated.  A  fatal  crisis, 
both  for  the  church  and  state,  was  drawing  on. 
The  danger,  from  the  time  when  the  Puritans 
commenced  their  systematic  opposition  to  the 
establishment,  had  been  distinctly  foreseen  and 


CHAP.  XVII.] 


CHARLES  I. 


337 


foretold,  but  the  circumstances  which  brought  on 
the  catastrophe  were  not  to  be  averted  by  hu- 
man foresight. 

James  had  been  forced  into  an  impolitic  war 
by  a  popular  clamour,  which  his  unworthy  favour- 
ite had  fermented.  That  favourite  maintained  his 
ascendency  when  Charles  succeeded  to  a  war, 
conducted  as  feebly  as  it  had  been  rashly  under- 
taken, and  to  an  exhausted  treasury.  The  House 
of  Commons  refused  supplies  for  a  contest  which 
was  of  their  own  seeking,  and  thus  at  the  com- 
mencement of  his  reign  Charles  unexpectedly 
found  himself  at  variance  with  his  parliament. 
His  accession  had  taken  place  at  one  of  those 
critical  periods  at  which  the  political  as  well  as 
the  human  body  is  subject.  The  Commons  pos- 
sessed no  real  power  or  influence  long  after  they 
were  recognised  as  one  of  the  three  estates  of 
the  realm.  Even  when  the  power  of  the  feudal 
nobility  had  been  broken,  some  generations  elaps- 
ed before  they  became  sensible  of  their  strength. 
They  had  crouched  at  the  feet  of  Henry  VIII. 
Elizabeth  with  a  high  hand  repressed  their  rising 
spirit;  but  even  Elizabeth  might  have  failed  in 
this,  if  her  personal  qualities  and  the  uniform  wis- 
dom of  her  government  had  not  imposed  upon 
them  a  profound  and  well-deserved  respect,  and  if 
the  nation  had  not  been  sensible  of  the  blessings 
which  they  enjoyed  under  her  singularly  favoured 
vol.  n.  22 


338 


CHARLES.  I. 


[chap. 


reign.  Under  James,  who  was  not  more  arbitrary 
in  principle,  than  he  was  flexible  in  temper,  they 
began  to  feel  and  exercise  their  power  ;  and  when 
Charles  succeeded,  they  were  in  a  disposition  to 
abuse  it. 

A  crisis  had  arrived  at  which  it  might  have  been 
possible,  had  there  been  prudence  on  both  sides, 
to  have  defined  and  balanced  the  constitution, 
without  a  struggle.  The  needful  political  reform 
might  have  been  accomplished  with  less  difficulty 
than  had  attended  our  religious  reformation,  be- 
cause there  was  less  evil  to  be  corrected.  Some 
grievances  there  were  which  cried  aloud  for  re- 
dress, some  vexations  which  might  easily  have 
been  removed,  and  in  redressing  them  the  go- 
vernment would  have  acquired  both  popularity 
and  strength.  But  the  men  by  whom  popular 
opinion  was  directed,  aimed  at  more  than  this, 
and  Charles  was  surrounded  by  counsellors  of 
whom  some  were  weak  and  others  treacherous. 
He  used  to  say  it  was  better  to  be  deceived  than 
to  distrust ;  this  opinion  he  inherited  from  his 
father,  whose  maxim  it  was,  that  suspicion  is  the 
disease  of  a  tyrant.  Charles  distrusted  no  one 
so  much  as  himself;  and  to  that  infirmity  of  pur- 
pose it  was  owing  that  he  did  not  make  himself 
an  absolute  king,  after  it  was  rendered  impos- 
sible for  him  to  govern  as  a  constitutional  one. 
He  had  nearly  succeeded,  when,  having  gained 


XVII.] 


CHARLES  I 


over  to  his  service  one  of  the  best  and  ablest 
leaders  of  the  popular  party,  he  tried  the  experi- 
ment of  governing  without  a  parliament,  and  rais- 
ing, by  his  own  prerogative,  the  necessary  reve- 
nues which  the  Commons  had  persisted  in  with- 
holding. The  liberties  of  England  would  then 
have  been  lost,  if  a  stronger  principle  than  the 
love  of  liberty  had  not  been  opposed  to  him. 

During  this  contention  the  Puritans  had  greatly- 
increased  in  numbers  and  in  audacity.  Under 
Abbot's  fatal  protection  they  had  got  possession 
of  too  many  churches  both  in  town  and  country  j 
and  the  preachers  who  had  thus  entered  the 
church  with  the  desire,  if  not  the  design,  of  be- 
traying it,  were  powerfully  aided  by  lecturers  in 
London  and  most  other  popular  places.  Because 
of  the  superstition  connected  with  the  mass,  the 
Puritans,  falling  into  an  opposite  extreme,  dis- 
paraged social  prayer  and  thanksgiving,  and  at- 
tached as  much  importance  to  sermons  as  the 
Romanists  to  what  they  deemed  the  sacrifice  of 
the  altar.  They  maintained  the  extravagant  and 
pernicious  opinion,  that  the  scripture  had  no  effi- 
cacy unless  it  were  expounded  in  sermons,  the 
word  no  vital  operation,  unless  it  were  preached 
from  the  pulpit;  that  prayers  and  sacraments, 
without  sermons,  were  not  merely  unprofitable, 
but  tended  to  further  condemnation,  and  that 
22 


340 


THE  PURITANS. 


sermons  themselves  must  be  heard,  not  read,  for 
it  was  through  the  ear  only  that  they  could  reach 
the  heart.  There  was  some  reason  for  this  as- 
sertion; the  heavy  hand  of  power  might  have 
reached  the  preacher  if  he  printed  his  inflam- 
matory harangues,  and  the  empty  oratory  by 
which  itching  cars  were  tickled  would  not  have 
imposed  upon  men  of  honest  minds  and  sober 
understanding,  when  they  examined  it  at  leisure 
by  the  test  of  common  sense.  The  nature  of 
public  worship  was  better  understood  by  the 
founders  of  the  English  Church.  They  knew 
that  public  instruction  is  only  a  part  of  it,  and 
not  the  most  important  ;  and  if  in  the  morning, 
there  was  a  sermon  or  homily  for  the  edification 
of  the  elder,  they  thought  that  in  the  afternoon 
the  minister  was  not  less  usefully  employed  in 
catechizing  and  examining  the  younger  members 
of  his  flock. 

In  maintaining  that  preaching  was  the  first 
duty  of  the  clergy,  the  Puritans  followed  the 
Lollards ;  it  was  one  of  those  errors  which 
Bishop  Pecock  withstood.  But  it  accorded  with 
the  temper  of  the  people.  Crowds  were  attracted 
not  less  surely  by  a  sermon  than  by  a  pageant ; 
and  they  listened  to  long  discourses  with  a  de- 
light which  would  be  unaccountable,  did  we  not 
know  that  the  pulpit  possessed  over  the  public 


XVII.] 


LAY  IMPROPRIATIONS. 


341 


mind,  in  those  days,  the  influence  which  in  these 
is  exercised  by  the  press.  When  Elizabeth 
wished  to  prepare  the  nation  for  any  of  her 
measures,  she  began  by  what  she  called  tuning 
the  pulpits.  The  enemies  of  the  monarchy  and 
of  the  church  had  learnt  this  policy  too;  and 
they  perverted  to  the  furtherance  of  their  pur- 
pose, what  in  its  origin  had  been  an  excellent 
design.  The  parochial  clergy  had  been  well  pro- 
vided for  by  the  institution  of  tithes,  till  the  mo- 
nastic orders,  in  their  cupidity,  deranged  the 
system.  They  obtained  advowsons  among  other 
grants  from  their  devotees  ;  and  the  convent  to 
which  a  living  was  annexed,  received  the  tithes 
and  supplied  the  parish  with  one  of  its  own  mem- 
bers, or  with  a  stipendiary  curate.  Less  hospi- 
tality could  be  kept  up,  and  the  influence  of  the 
resident  ministers  must  thus  have  been  dimi- 
nished ;  but  the  property,  though  diverted  from 
its  original  destination,  remained  in  ecclesiastical 
hands,  the  transfer  being  from  the  secular  clergy 
to  the  regular.  At  the  Reformation  it  was  lost 
to  the  Church  ;  the  impropriated  tithes  past 
then  with  the  other  property  of  the  religious 
houses  into  the  hands  of  the  spoilers.  They 
used  their  patronage  as  unworthily  as  they  had 
obtained  it,  bestowing  their  cures  upon  such  per- 
sons as  would  undertake  to  serve  them  at  the 
cheapest  rate,  who  were  of  course  the  needy,  the 


342 


THE  PURITANS. 


ignorant,  or  the  profligate.  The  scandal  thus 
brought  upon  the  Church  became  a  frequent  topic 
of  indignant  censure  in  the  writings  and  dis- 
courses of  those  who  had  the  interests  of  religion 
at  heart;  and  at  length  an  association  was  formed 
for  the  purpose  of  purchasing  lay  impropriations, 
and  re-annexing  them  to  the  impoverished  livings 
from  which  they  had  been  severed.  Large  sums 
were  raised  by  voluntary  contributions,  and  in- 
trusted to  a  self-constituted  corporation  of  feof- 
fees, consisting  of  four  clergymen,  four  lawyers, 
and  four  citizens,  with  a  treasurer,  who,  if  the 
others  should  be  balanced  in  opinion,  possessed 
the  casting  voice.  The  persons  who  bestirred 
themselves  with  most  activity  in  the  project,  and 
obtained  the  management  of  it,  were  leading 
men  among  the  Puritans;  and  it  soon  appeared 
what  insidious  intentions  were  covered  under  this 
specious  pretext.  Instead  of  restoring  to  the 
parish  church  the  impropriations  which  they  pur- 
chased, they  employed  the  revenue  in  establish- 
ing lecturers  (removable  at  pleasure,  and  there- 
fore dependent  on  them,)  in  market  towns,  and 
especially  in  such  as  sent  members  to  Parlia- 
ment ;  in  supporting  schoolmasters  to  train  up 
youth  in  puritanical  opinions,  granting  exhibi- 
tions at  the  University  to  the  pupils  thus  trained, 
pensioning  ministers  who  had  been  silenced  for 
nonconformity,  and  assisting  the  families  of  such 


XVII.] 


LAUD. 


343 


as  had  thus  suffered  in  their  cause.  The  course 
which  the  feoffees  pursued  made  their  intention 
evident ;  they  were  manifestly  the  main  instru- 
ments for  the  Puritan  faction  to  undo  the  Church: 
they  were,  therefore,  called  into  the  Court  of 
Exchequer,  the  feoffment  condemned  as  being 
illegal,  and  the  impropriations  which  they  had 
acquired  were  confiscated  to  the  King's  use. 

The  ostensible  purport  of  this  feoffment  was 
so  unexceptionably  good,  that  the  multitude,  who 
were  incapable  of  understanding  the  dangerous 
end  to  which  it  was  directed,  joined  with  the 
enemies  of  the  Church  in  lamenting  its  suppres- 
sion ;  and  this  measure  increased  the  animosity 
with  which  Laud,  the  new  Primate,  was  assailed. 
His  love  of  learning,  his  liberal  temper,  his  mu- 
nificence, and  his  magnanimity  would  have  made 
him  an  honour  and  a  blessing  to  the  Church  in 
its  happiest  ages  ;  his  ardent,  incautious,  sincere, 
uncompromising  spirit,  were  ill  adapted  to  that 
in  which  his  lot  had  fallen.  But  the  circum- 
stances which  brought  on,  together  with  his  de- 
struction, the  overthrow  of  the  Church  and  State, 
the  murder  of  the  King,  and  the  long  miseries  of 
the  nation,  were  many  and  widely  various ;  some 
of  remote  and  foreign  origin,  others  recent  and  of 
home  growth. 

The  establishment  of  the  Dutch  republic  was 
one  of  those  causes.    Nothing  in  the  history  of 


344  REPUBLICANISM.  [chap. 

the  modern  world  had  as  yet  so  strongly  and  so 
worthily  excited  the  sympathy  of  upright  and 
intelligent  minds,  as  the  struggle  in  which  the 
Netherlander  engaged  for  their  civil  and  reli- 
gious liberties.  Never  was  good  cause  more  vir- 
tuously and  gloriously  defended.  But  by  those 
wars  the  way  was  prepared  for  that  preponder- 
ance of  the  French  power  which  has  produced 
such  evils  to  Europe,  and  in  all  human  likelihood 
will  yet  produce  more  :  and  as  the  doctrinal  dis- 
putes, which  in  their  consequences  subverted  the 
church  of  England,  were  principally  derived 
from  the  synod  of  Dort,  so  from  the  Dutch  wars 
were  the  seeds  of  English  republicanism  im- 
ported. English  and  Scotchmen  were  trained 
in  those  wars  as  soldiers  of  fortune,  ready  to  em- 
bark in  any  cause.  A  great  proportion  of  the 
trading  part  of  the  community,  especially  of  the 
Londoners,  seeing  the  commercial  prosperity  of 
the  Dutch,  imputed  it  to  the  form  of  their  com- 
monwealth, for  they  were  too  ignorant  to  know 
what  had  been  the  previous  condition  of  the  Low 
Countries.  And  at  the  same  time  many  of  the 
higher  classes  had  imbibed  from  their  classical 
studies  prejudices  in  favour  of  a  popular  govern- 
ment, which  are  as  congenial  to  the  generous 
temper  of  inexperienced  youth,  as  they  are  in- 
consistent with  sound  knowledge  and  mature 
judgement.    Thus  while  some  men  of  surpassing 


xvri.] 


CALVINISTS. 


345 


talents  were  so  infatuated  with  political  theories 
that,  for  the  prospect  of  realizing1  them,  they  were 
willing  to  incur  the  clanger  and  the  guilt  of  excit- 
ing a  civil  war,  others  were  ready  to  co-operate 
with  them  for  the  hope  of  destroying  episcopacy, 
and  establishing,  with  the  discipline  of  Geneva, 
the  irreversible  decrees  of  Calvinism  by  rigorous 
laws.  And  they  who  for  these  secret  purposes, 
which  they  dared  not  as  yet  avow,  systematically 
attacked  the  government,  were  strengthened  by 
the  aid  of  many  wise  and  moderate  men,  (the 
best  of  the  nation,)  who,  from  the  purest  motives, 
opposed  the  injurious  measures  of  the  Crown,  till 
the  same  sense  of  duty  winch  had  induced  them 
to  resist  it  in  its  strength,  made  them  exert  them- 
selves and  sacrifice  themselves  for  its  support  in 
its  hour  of  weakness  and  distress.  To  these  were 
added  those  who,  being  neither  under  the  restraint 
of  good  principles,  nor  the  delusion  of  erroneous 
ones,  cared  not  whether  they  aggrandized  them- 
selves by  compelling  the  Crown  to  grant  them 
honours  and  emoluments,  or  by  overthrowing  it 
and  sharing  in  its  spoils  ;  the  crafty,  who  looked 
for  opportunities  of  promoting  their  own  interest 
in  the  troubles  which  they  fomented  ;  and  they 
who  from  timidity  and  wariness  adhered  always 
to  the  strongest  side,  though  with  no  worse  mo- 
tives than  that  of  preserving  themselves  and  their 
families  from  ruin. 


346 


CHARLES  I. 


While  these  persons  swam  with  the  stream, 
they  whose  determination  it  was  to  shake  the 
throne  and  to  subvert  the  altar,  practised  without 
scruple  any  means  whereby  their  design  might 
be  promoted.  One  of  their  most  effectual  arts 
was  to  possess  the  people  with  an  opinion  that 
the  King  in  his  heart  favoured  popery,  and  that 
Laud  was  seeking  to  re-establish  it.  In  both 
cases  the  imputation  was  nefariously  false.  Charles 
had  inherited  his  father's  wise  and  tolerant  feel- 
ings toward  the  Romanists.  Had  it  been  pos- 
sible to  bring  about  a  reunion  with  the  Romish 
Church,  preserving  the  principles  and  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  Church  of  England,  he  would 
gladly  have  co-operated  in  a  measure  so  devout- 
ly to  be  wished.  But  knowing  that  the  difficul- 
ties were  insuperable,  he  contented  himself  with 
endeavouring  to  lessen  the  evils  of  the  separa- 
tion as  far  as  his  power  might  extend  ;  and  in 
the  intercourse  of  courtesy  which  he  maintained 
with  Rome,  he  made  known  his  resolution  that 
no  Catholic  under  his  reign  should  suffer  death 
on  the  score  of  religion.  Laud  heartily  accord- 
ed with  the  King  in  these  feelings  and  intentions ; 
but  the  papal  court  was  not  tolerant  enough 
to  understand  their  conduct  ;  that  which  pro- 
ceeded from  humanity  and  wisdom  and  Chris- 
tian charity,  was  supposed  at  Rome  to  indicate 
an  unsettled  faith  ;  hopes  were  entertained  there 


XVII.] 


CHARLES  I. 


347 


of  the  King's  conversion,  and  a  Cardinal's  hat 
was  actually  offered  to  the  Primate.  The  ca- 
lumny, therefore,  that  they  were  in  collusion 
with  the  Papal  Court,  was  easily  raised  by  bi- 
goted or  designing  men,  and  greedily  received 
by  the  multitude,  who  were  then  in  the  delirium 
of  fanatical  zeal :  and  to  this  day  it  is  audaciously 
repeated,  in  defiance  of  the  most  conclusive  evi- 
dence of  history  and  the  most  notorious  and  indu- 
bitable facts.  But  the  zealots  of  faction  are  nei- 
ther capable  of  shame  nor  of  remorse.  For  never 
were  two  men  more  conscientiously  attached  to  the 
Church  of  England,  more  devoutly  convinced  of 
its  doctrines,  mere  deeply  sensible  of  its  inestima- 
ble value  to  the  nation,  than  this  King  and  this 
Primate,  who,  in  their  lives,  were  the  most  stead- 
fast of  its  defenders,  and  the  most  munificent  of  its 
benefactors,  and  in  their  deaths  the  most  illustrious 
of  its  martyrs. 

The  charitable  temper  of  Laud  toward  the 
Catholics,  and  the  humanity  with  which  he  some- 
times interfered  in  behalf  of  the  imprisoned 
priests,  might  alone  have  rendered  him  unpopu- 
lar among  the  Puritans.  But  his  zeal  for  the 
Church  over  which  he  presided  entitled  him  to 
their  hatred;  and  the  clear  knowledge,  which, 
like  his  predecessors,  Parker  and  Whitgift,  he 
possessed  of  their  ends  and  aim,  drew  upon  him 
the  rancorous  and  deadly  hatred  of  the  factions 


348 


LAUD. 


who  were  now  leagued  against  the  state.  That 
knowledge  he  expressed  in  a  sermon  preached  at 
the  opening  of  Charles's  first  Parliament.  "  They," 
said  he,  "  whoever  they  be,  that  would  overturn 
sedes  ecclesice,  the  seats  of  ecclesiastical  judgement, 
will  not  spare,  if  ever  they  get  power,  to  have  a 
pluck  at  the  throne  of  David;  and  there  is  not  a 
man  that  is  for  purity,  all  fellows  in  this  Church, 
but  he  is  against  monarchy  in  the  State.  And  cer- 
tainly either  he  U  but  half-headed  in  his  own  prin- 
ciples, or  he  can  be  but  half-hearted  to  the  House 
of  David." 

His  first  act,  upon  being  made  Dean  of  the 
Chapel,  displayed  the  sense  of  duty  with  which 
he  entered  upon  his  functions.  It  had  been  the 
ill  custom  of  the  court,  during  the  preceding 
reign,  that  whenever  the  King  came  into  his 
closet,  which  looked  into  the  Chapel,  the  prayers 
were  immediately  broken  off,  and  the  anthem 
begun,  that  the  preacher  might  without  delay 
ascend  the  pulpit.  Justly  disliking  this,  Laud 
requested  his  Majesty  that  he  would  be  present 
every  Sunday  at  the  liturgy  as  well  as  the  ser- 
mon, and  that  at  whatsoever  part  of  the  service 
he  might  enter,  the  minister  should  regularly  pro- 
ceed with  it  ;  Charles  not  only  assented  to  his 
request,  but  thanked  him  for  the  admonition. 
Had  he  met  with  the  same  good  intentions  and 
sense  of  duty  in  the  whole  of  bis  Clergy,  which 


XVII.J 


CHARLES  I. 


349 


he  found  in  his  Sovereign,  the  task  of  restoring 
discipline  would  have  been  easy.  But  Abbot 
had  been  so  wilfully  remiss,  that  every  pragma- 
tical or  discontented  clergyman  did  with  the 
service  as  he  thought  fit,  till  inconformity  had 
become  well  nigh  general.  It  was  difficult  to 
curb  the  license  which  had  thus  begun  to  plead 
privilege  in  its  defence  ;  still  more  so  to  correct 
the  sour  spirit  of  Calvinism  with  which  the 
Clergy  were  now  leavened.  The  zeal  with 
which  he  attempted  this  necessary  reform  was 
not  always  accompanied  with  discretion ;  and 
such  is  always  the  malignity  of  faction,  that 
while  his  virtues,  his  learning,  and  his  splendid 
liberality  were  overlooked,  his  errors  and  weak- 
nesses were  exaggerated,  his  intentions  tra- 
duced, and  even  his  best  actions  represented  as 
crimes. 

His  reverence  for  antiquity,  his  love  for  the 
pomps  and  ceremonies  of  worship,  and  the  im- 
pression which  he  allowed  to  be  made  upon  his 
mind  by  dreams  and  imagined  omens,  exposed 
him  to  a  charge  of  superstition,  from  those  who 
were  so  superstitious  themselves,  that  they  ac- 
cused him  of  having  brought  on  tempests  and 
shipwrecks,  by  omitting  a  prayer  for  fine  weather 
in  the  last  form  of  service  for  a  fast  day,  that 
day  having  been  appointed  at  a  time  when  the 
harvest  had  just  happily  been  won !    At  the 


350 


THE  PURITANS. 


[chap. 


same  time  he  was  loudly  arraigned  for  profane- 
ness,  because  the  King,  as  his  father  had  done 
before  him,  published  a  declaration  authorizing 
lawful  sports  on  Sundays,  in  opposition  to  the 
Sabbatarian  notions,  with  which  the  Puritans 
were  possessed.  These  factious  people,  although 
impatient  of  any  observances  which  the  institu- 
tions of  their  country  enjoined,  were  willing  to 
have  imposed  upon  themselves  and  others  obliga- 
tions far  more  burthensome  :  they  would  have 
taken  Moses  for  their  lawgiver,  so  ill  did  they 
understand  the  spirit  of  the  Gospel ;  and  they 
adopted  the  rabbinical  superstitions  concerning 
the  sabbath,  overlooking  or  being  ignorant  that 
the  sabbath  was  intended  to  be  not  less  a  day  of 
recreation  than  of  rest. 

The  motives  for  this  declaration  were  unobjec- 
tionably  good;  but  the  just  liberty  which  in 
happier  times,  and  under  proper  parochial  dis- 
cipline, would  have  been  in  all  respects  useful, 
proved  injurious  in  the  then  distempered  state  of 
public  feeling.  It  displeased  the  well-intentioned 
part  of  the  Calvinized  Clergy,  and  it  was  abused 
in  officious  triumph  by  those  who  were  glad  of 
an  opportunity  for  insulting  the  professors  of  a 
sullen  and  dismal  morality.  Laud's  unpopularity 
was  further  increased,  by  his  enjoining  that  the 
communion-table  should  be  placed  in  the  chan- 
cel, and  decently  railed  in.  and  by  his  practice 


xvn.] 


LAUD. 


351 


of  bowing  toward  it,  which  his  enemies  con- 
sidered to  be  a  mark  of  popish  superstition. 
Offence  was  taken  also,  because  the  University 
of  Oxford,  to  which  he  was  a  most  munificent 
and  judicious  benefactor,  addressed  him  by  the 
titles  of  His  Holiness,  and  Most  Holy  Father ; 
and  because  he  publicly  declared  that,  in  the  dis- 
posal of  ecclesiastical  preferments,  he  would, 
when  their  merits  were  equal,  prefer  the  single 
to  the  married  men.  But  nothing  exasperated 
the  feeling  of  the  people  against  him  so  much,  as 
the  inhuman  sentences  passed  in  the  Star  Cham- 
ber upon  Prynne,  Bastwick  and  Burton,  as  libel- 
lers. They  were  condemned  to  a  fine  of  five 
thousand  pounds  each,  to  lose  their  ears  in  the 
pillory,  and  to  be  imprisoned  during  the  King's 
pleasure  :  and  Prynne's  being  a  second  offence, 
the  stumps  of  his  ears  were  cut  off,  and  he  was 
branded  in  both  cheeks.  The  sentence  was  as 
bravely  endured  as  it  was  cruelly  performed,  and 
the  sufferers,  already  popular  for  their  cause,  be- 
came more  so  for  their  fortitude.  The  whole 
odium  fell  upon  Laud,  partly  because  the  libels, 
which  were  of  the  foulest  and  most  atrocious 
kind,  were  particularly  directed  against  him ;  but 
still  more,  because,  by  a  series  of  systematic  libel- 
ling and  slander,  he  had  been  made  the  peculiar 
object  of  vulgar  hatred.  No  regard  was  paid  to  the 
fact,  that  every  member  of  the  court  concurred  in 


352 


PRYNNE. 


the  sentence,  including  some  who  were  deeply  im- 
plicated in  the  intrigues  against  the  state;  and  as 
little  was  it  considered  that  the  principles  which 
these  criminals  disseminated  tended  directly  to 
excite  rebellion,  and  that  they  aimed  at  nothing 
short  of  the  destruction  of  those  who  opposed 
them.  Prynne  himself  lived  to  be  sensible  of  this, 
and  to  acknowledge  in  his  old  age  that,  "  if  the 
King  had  cut  off  his  head,  when  he  only  cropt 
his  ears,  he  had  done  no  more  than  justice,  and 
had  done  God  and  the  nation  good  service." 

But  that  which  drew  most  obloquy  and  heavi- 
est persecution  upon  the  heads  of  the  Clergy,  was 
the  promulgating  a  body  of  Canons  wherein  an 
oath  was  enjoined  for  preventing  all  innovations 
in  doctrine  and  government.  By  this  oath  the 
Clergy  declared  their  approbation  of  the  Church 
of  England  both  in  doctrine  and  discipline,  as 
containing  all  things  necessary  to  salvation; 
and  pledged  themselves  neither  directly  or  in- 
directly to  bring  in  any  popish  tenets,  nor  subject 
it  to  the  usurpations  and  superstitions  of  the  See 
of  Rome,  nor  consent  ever  to  alter  its  Government 
by  Archbishops,  Bishops,  Deans  and  Arch- 
deacons, &c.,  as  it  was  at  that  time  established. 
All  Clergymen  were  required  to  take  this  oath 
on  pain  of  suspension  and  deprivation.  No  one 
who  had  conscientiously  entered  the  ministry 
could  object  to  its  purport,  and  it  was  so  worded 


XVII.J 


THE  NEW  CANONS. 


353 


that  by  every  untainted  mind  it  might  have  been 
taken  as  honestly  as  it  was  meant.  Nevertheless 
an  outcry  was  easily  raised  against  it  in  those 
evil  times,  as  if  the  common  form  of  speech  which 
had  been  used  to  save  a  needless  enumeration 
of  offices,  covered  some  insidious  meaning,  and 
therefore  it  was  branded  with  the  name  of  the  et 
ccetera  oath.  A  clamour  of  this  kind,  which  bids 
defiance  to  reason,  is  always  favourable  to  the 
views  of  faction. 

More  formidable  objections  were  brought 
against  the  first  Canon,  wherein  it  was  declared 
that  Monarchy  is  of  divine  right ;  that  it  is  trea- 
sonable to  set  up  any  independent  coercive  power, 
either  papal  or  popular ;  and  that  for  subjects  to 
bear  arms  against  their  King  upon  any  pretence 
whatsoever,  is  to  resist  the  power  ordained  of 
God.  This  was  touching  the  plague-sore  of  the 
age ;  for  it  was  a  doctrine  which  some  of  the 
Clergy  in  their  zeal  against  the  seditious  spirit 
of  the  Puritans,  and  others  more  inexcusably  for 
the  purpose  of  recommending  themselves  to 
court-favour,  had  carried  to  an  extreme  hardly 
less  dangerous  than  that  to  which  it  was  opposed. 
Dr.  Manwaring  in  particular  had  preached,  that 
the  authority  of  Parliament  was  not  necessary  for 
imposing  taxes,  but  that  the  King  might  levy 
them  by  his  own  royal  will  and  pleasure,  which 
in  such  cases  bound  the  subject's  conscience  on 

vol.  n.  23 


354 


THE  NEW  CANONS. 


[chap. 


pain  of  damnation.  For  this  he  was  condemned 
by  the  House  of  Lords  to  be  imprisoned  during 
pleasure,  fined  one  thousand  pounds,  suspended 
for  three  years,  disabled  for  ever  from  preaching 
at  Court,  and  declared  incapable  of  any  ecclesi- 
astical or  secular  preferment.  He  made  a  humble 
submission  on  his  knees  before  both  houses,  ac- 
knowledging that  he  had  preached  rashly,  scan- 
dalously and  unadvisedly,  and  entreating  pardon 
of  God,  the  King,  the  Parliament,  and  the  Com- 
monweal, for  the  dangerous  errors  which  he  had 
committed.  But  the  opinions  which  he  thus  re- 
nounced, were  too  congenial  to  those  in  which 
the  King  had  been  trained  ;  and  Charles,  not  sa- 
tisfied with  remitting  the  fine  (which  would  have 
been  a  commendable  act  of  compassion),  most 
unfitly  heaped  preferment  upon  him,  in  disregard 
of  his  sentence,  and  finally  promoted  him  to  the 
bishopric  of  St.  David's.  It  was  too  plain  that 
he  had  been  rewarded  not  for  his  submission,  but 
for  the  opinions  which  had  exposed  him  to  punish- 
ment. Even  moderate  men  therefore,  interpreting 
this  Canon  by  the  known  feelings  of  the  Court, 
deemed  it  highly  reprehensible,  and  imputing  to 
it  a  wider  meaning  than  the  words  themselves 
conveyed,  considered  it  as  asserting  an  absolute 
power  in  the  Crown. 

Yet  it  is  apparent  that  in  framing  these  Canons 
Laud  proceeded  not  only  (as  he  always  did)  with 


XFH.] 


THE  NEW  CANONS. 


355 


the  best  intentions  for  the  Church,  but  in  a  con- 
ciliatory temper.  Ceremonies,  to  which  he  was 
devoutly  attached,  were  merely  recommended, 
not  enjoined,  and  they  who  should  observe  or 
omit  them  were  exhorted  to  judge  charitably  of 
each  other ;  stricter  measures  against  popish  re- 
cusants were  prescribed,  than  he  as  an  individual 
could  have  approved,  and  regulations  were  made 
for  preventing  the  abuses  of  ecclesiastical  power. 
But  whatever  Laud  did  was  maliciously  inter- 
preted. The  Canons  too  were  formed  in  a  Con- 
vocation, which,  meeting  as  usual  with  Parlia- 
ment, should  have  broken  up,  according  to  cus- 
tom, when  Parliament  was  dissolved  :  but  as  the 
dissolution  took  place  before  the  Clergy  had  com- 
pleted these  laws,  or  voted  their  subsidy,  the 
Assembly  was  continued  during  the  King's  plea- 
sure, in  order  to  complete  its  business,  by  virtue 
of  a  Commission  under  the  Great  Seal.  There 
was  a  precedent  for  this  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  and 
the  Judges  had  given  their  opinion  in  its  favour- 
The  legality  therefore  of  its  continuance  would 
not  have  been  denied,  if  the  enemies  of  the  Church 
had  regarded  either  the  reason  or  the  justice  of 
the  case ;  but  they  were  as  ready  to  cry  out  for 
the  rigorous  observance  of  the  law,  when  it  suited 
their  purposes,  as  to  trample  upon  it  when  it  op- 
posed them. 

Laud  had  long  seen  the  cloud  gathering  over 
23 


356 


LAUD. 


[CHAI'- 


the  Church  of  England.  He  knew  also  his  own 
danger,  frorn  those  who  were  possessed  with  the 
spirit  of  sectarian  rancour,  and  from  an  ignorant 
populace  rendered  ferocious  by  all  the  arts  of 
faction.  He  had  privately  and  publicly  been 
threatened  in  papers,  which  denounced  him  as  a 
wretch,  whom  neither  God  nor  the  world  could 
suffer  to  live ;  and  his  house  had  been  attacked 
by  a  mob  at  midnight.  But  he,  being  as  courage- 
ous as  he  was  innocent,  confided  in  his  integrity, 
and  in  that  plain  evidence  of  good  intentions 
which  was  borne  by  all  his  actions.  In  a  diary 
which  he  meant  that  no  eye  but  his  own  should 
see,  he  had  written  this  prayer :  "  May  God  so 
love  and  bless  my  soul,  as  I  declare  and  endea- 
vour that  all  the  never-to-be-enough  deplored 
distractions  of  the  Church  may  be  composed  hap- 
pily to  the  glory  of  his  name."  His  plans  for  the 
advantage  of  the  Church,  and  for  the  promotion 
of  sound  learning,  were  of  the  most  munificent 
kind  ;  and  he  had  employed  his  fortune  as  well 
as  his  influence  in  carrying  them  into  effect.  From 
his  own  private  means  he  had  endowed  a  chapel 
in  his  native  town  of  Reading,  enlarged  St.  John's 
College  at  Oxford,  where  he  had  been  bred,  esta- 
blished an  Arabic  lecture  in  that  University,  and 
presented  to  the  Bodleian  Library  as  many  Greek 
and  Oriental  manuscripts  as  he  could  procure 
from  the  East.     He  annexed  commendaries  to 


LAUD. 


353 


five  of  the  smaller  bishoprics,  and  intended  in  the 
same  manner  to  increase  the  revenues  of  all  that 
needed  augmentation.  He  raised  funds  for  re- 
pairing St.  Paul's,  which  had  been  materially 
injured  by  fire,  and  by  continuing  those  funds 
after  the  repairs  should  be  completed,  it  was  his 
intention  to  pursue  the  plan  of  buying  in  impro- 
priations, and  re-annexing  them  to  the  churches 
from  which  they  had  been  severed.  At  his  re- 
quest the  King  had  restored  to  the  Church  of 
Inland  all  the  impropriations  yet  remaining  in 
the  Crown :  and  had  the  Government  continued 
undisturbed,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  Charles 
Avould  heartily  have  entered  into  his  plans  for 
improving  the  condition  of  the  inferior  Clergy; 
one  means,  and  not  the  least  effectual,  of  removing 
the  reproach  which  unworthy  ministers  brought 
upon  the  establishment.  It  was  well  said  by 
Sir  Benjamin  Rudyard,  one  of  the  most  upright 
and  able  men  of  that  age,  that  scandalous  livings 
cannot  but  have  scandalous  ministers ;  that  po- 
verty must  needs  bring  contempt  upon  the  Clergy 
among  those  who  measure  men  by  the  acre  and 
weigh  them  by  the  pound,  which  indeed  is  the 
greatest  part  of  men;  that  to  plant  good  ministers 
in  good  livings,  was  the  strongest  and  purest 
means  to  establish  true  religion ;  that  the  exam- 
ple of  Germany  ought  to  be  a  warning  to  us,  where 
the  reformed  ministers,  though  grave  and  learned 


358 


LAUD. 


[chap- 


men,  were  neglected  and  despised  by  reason  of 
their  poverty ;  and  that  it  is  comely  and  decent 
that  the  outward  splendour  of  the  Church  should 
hold  a  proportion,  and  participate  with  the  pros- 
perity of  the  temporal  estate. 

By  steadily  enforcing  discipline,  Laud  cor- 
rected many  of  the  disorders  at  which  his  prede- 
cessor had  connived.  The  Churches  were  placed 
in  decent  repair,  the  service  was  regularly  per- 
formed, the  sacrament  reverently  administered. 
They  who  would  not  follow  the  rubric  were 
silenced ;  and  by  refusing  to  ordain  any  person, 
except  to  a  cure  of  souls,  the  number  of  Calvin- 
istic  Lecturers  was  diminished,  and  of  those  who, 
being  retained  as  Chaplains  in  the  families  of 
private  gentlemen,  disgraced  the  Church  by  con- 
forming to  the  humours  and  fancies  of  their 
patrons,  by  their  incapacity,  or  by  the  irregularity 
of  their  lives.  At  the  same  time,  through  his 
munificent  encouragement  of  learning,  and  his 
judicious  patronage,  means  were  taken  for  sup- 
plying the  establishment  with  men  every  way 
qualified  for  their  holy  office.  The  most  zealous 
of  the  nonconformists,"  alike  impatient  of  sub- 
mission or  of  silence,  withdrew  from  the  king- 
dom ;  some  to  Holland,  others  to  New  England, 
whither  the  most  strenuous  of  their  parliamentary 
adherents,  believing  that  the  triumph  of  the 
Establishment   was   complete,   would  have  foli 


XVII.] 


CHARLES  t. 


359 


lowed  them,  if  the  vessel  in  which  they  were  ac- 
tually embarked  had  not  been  embargoed.  From 
that  act  events  of  greater  importance  to  society  re- 
sulted, than  was  depending  upon  the  ship  which 
carried  Caesar  and  his  fortunes ;  for  Pym,  Hamb- 
den,  and  Cromwell  were  on  board.  Had  these 
men  been  allowed  to  emigrate,  the  kingdom  might 
have  remained  in  peace,  but  it  would  have  been 
under  an  absolute  government,  the  tendency  of 
which  is  inevitably  to  corrupt  the  rulers  and  de- 
grade the  nation. 

Hitherto  the  course  of  civil  and  of  ecclesiastical 
affairs  during  this  reign  had  in  no  degree  de- 
pended upon  each  other.  The  course  which  the 
hierarchy  pursued  would  have  been  the  same, 
had  the  government  been  as  popular  as  in  the 
days  of  Elizabeth;  it  was  in  fact  strictly  con- 
formable to  the  scheme  of  Church  policy,  which 
that  Queen  and  her  great  minister  Burleigh  had 
approved.  The  obnoxious  policy  of  the  Court 
proceeded  not  from  any  spirit  of  bigotry  or  per- 
secution, (no  former  government  had  been  so 
tolerant,)  but  from  the  difficulties  wherein  it  was 
involved,  first  by  the  injustice  of  the  Commons  in 
withholding  supplies  for  a  war  which  they  them- 
selves had  excited,  and  then  by  arbitrary  mea- 
sures adopted  less  from  inclination  than  in  self- 
defence,  but  carried  too  far,  and  persisted  in  too 
long.     Men  and  parties,  the   most  opposite  in 


360 


CHARLES  [. 


[chap. 


character  and  views,  were  combined  therefore 
against  a  system,  which,  in  whatever  manner  it 
had  arisen,  was  plainly  inconsistent  with  the  liber- 
ties of  the  nation;  and  thus  wise  and  honourable 
and  loyal  men,  the  true  friends  of  the  constitution, 
were  engaged  for  a  time,  as  if  in  a  common 
cause,  with  those  who  aimed  at  establishing  a  sort 
of  Venetian  oligarchy,  others  whom  nothing  but  a 
wild  democracy  would  content,  and  others  wild- 
er still,  who  were  for  levelling  thrones,  dignities, 
and  estates,  to  prepare  the  way  for  the  kingdom 
of  Christ.  Their  madness  was  not  yet  avowed  ; 
it  was  kept  from  breaking  forth  by  the  salutary 
restraint  of  ecclesiastical  discipline.  The  purposes 
of  the  aristocratic  republicans  were  more  matured 
as  well  as  more  feasible,  and  the  opportunity  which 
they  sought  was  afforded  by  an  explosion  in  Scot- 
land. 

The  reformation  in  that  kingdom  had  been 
carried  on  with  greater  violence  than  in  England, 
the  government  having  been  opposed  to  it  at 
first,  and  afterwards  too  weak  to  direct  its  course. 
The  turbulent  nobles  shared  among  themselves 
the  spoils  of  the  Church ;  and  the  fierce,  uncom- 
promising, high-minded,  hard-hearted  zealots,  by 
whom  the  storm  was  raised,  encouraged  the  po- 
pulace to  demolish  the  Abbeys  and  Cathedrals. 
They  had  not,  however,  been  allowed  to  con- 
struct the  Church  Government  altogether  upon 


XVH.] 


SCOTLAND. 


361 


the  Gone  van  model,  for  episcopacy  was  still  re- 
tained in  it ;  and  James,  when  his  authority  was 
established,  took  measures  for  restoring  to  the 
Bishops  the  temporalities  of  which  they  had 
been  despoiled,  for  bettering  the  condition  of 
the  Parochial  Clergy,  and  for  assimilating  the 
service  to  that  of  the  English  Church ;  and  he 
enjoined  his  successor  to  go  on  with  what  he 
should  leave  incomplete.  These  measures  alarmed 
the  great  landholders,  who  dreaded  lest  the  estates 
of  which  they  had  tortuously  possessed  themselves 
should  be  resumed;  and  provoked  the  Puritan- 
ical Clergy,  to  whom  every  vestige  of  Catholi- 
cism was  an  abomination,  but  who  had  succeed- 
ed to  the  intolerance  of  the  Catholic  priesthood, 
to  their  assumed  infallibility,  and  were  now  claim- 
ing to  inherit  their  spiritual  despotism.  These 
persons  were  joined  by  the  discontented  and  the 
desperate,  all  who  by  means  of  public  confu- 
sion hoped  to  advance  or  to  reprieve  their  for- 
tunes. On  the  part  of  the  English  Government 
there  was  a  culpable  disregard  of  forms  and 
usages,  as  if  it  relied  too  proudly  upon  its  meri- 
torious intentions  ;  on  the  part  of  its  Scotch  min- 
isters there  was  imprudence  in  some,  treachery 
in  others.  A  popular  commotion  was  easily  rais- 
ed, and  then  craftily  directed.  The  people  bound 
themselves  by  a  solemn  covenant  to  resist  all  in- 
novations in    religion,  to   the  uttermost  of  that 


362 


THE  COVENANT. 


[chap. 


power  which  God  had  put  into  their  hands ;  and 
not  to  be  diverted  from  their  course  by  allure- 
ment or  terror,  word  or  writ,  but,  whatever  asper- 
sion of  rebellion  might  be  cast  upon  them,  labour 
to  restore  the  purity  and  liberty  of  the  Gospel, 
A  saving  clause  was  inserted  for  the  defence  of  the 
King's  Majesty,  his  person  and  authority,  and  the 
peace  of  the  kingdom ;  and  a  solemn  engagement 
was  made  to  keep  themselves  and  those  under 
them,  both  in  public  and  private,  within  the 
bounds  of  christian  liberty,  and  to  be  good  ex- 
amples to  others  of  all  godliness,  soberness  and 
righteousness,  and  of  every  duty  owing  to  God  and 
man. 

The  people,  who  through  their  fear  of  Popery 
were  excited  to  this  rebellious  combination,  were 
too  ignorant  to  perceive  how  closely  their  leaders 
were  imitating  some  of  those  very  things,  which 
had  rendered  the  papal  cause  deservedly  odious; 
they  did  not  know  that  the  men,  who,  by  means 
of  the  pulpit  and  the  press,  were  stirring  them 
to  rebellion,  used  those  very  maxims  and  argu- 
ments of  the  Jesuits,  which  had  rendered  the 
penal  laws  against  the  Gatholics  necessary ;  and 
that  the  covenant  itself  was  an  exact  counterpart 
of  that  league,  which  had  brought  upon  Fiance 
an  age  of  civil  war  and  universal  sulFering.  The 
storm  was  soon  raised.  The  Scotch  were  in 
treasonable   communication   with   Richelieu  and 


xvii.]  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS.  363 


the  French  government;  the  heads  of  the  popular 
party  in  England,  with  the  Scotch.  The  re- 
sources of  the  government,  which,  though  unduly 
raised,  had  been  providentially,  as  well  as  worthily, 
employed,  were  soon  exhausled  in  the  contest; 
for  Charles  was  betrayed  by  his  servants,  by  his 
generals,  and  still  more  fatally,  by  his  own  inde- 
cision. Necessity  compelled  him  to  call  a  Par- 
liament ;  it  was  hastily  dissolved  through  the  rash 
or  malicious  conduct  of  an  unfaithful  minister  :  the 
indiscreet  dissolution  increased  the  discontent  of 
the  nation ;  another  Parliament  was  summoned, 
in  which  the  enemies  of  government  by  their  ac- 
tivity and  talent,  more  than  by  their  numbers,  im- 
mediately took  the  lead;  and  they  commenced 
those  systematic  attacks,  upon  the  crown,  which 
were  intended  to  make  the  Sovereign  either  their 
victim  or  their  instrument. 

Prynne  and  his  fellow  sufferers  were  now  re- 
leased by  order  of  Parliament ;  many  who  thought 
them  well  deserving  of  punishment,  pitied  them 
nevertheless  for  the  cruelty  with  which  they  had 
been  punished :  others  procured  their  enlarge- 
ment for  the  purpose  of  letting  them  loose  against 
the  state,  and  pie  pared  for  them  a  triumphant 
entry  into  London.  The  attack  upon  the  Church 
was  begun  by  passing  a  resolution,  that  the  Clergy 
had  no  power  to  make  any  canons  without  com- 
mon consent  in  Parliament,  though  no  other  me- 


364 


CHARLES  I. 


[chap. 


thod  had  ever  been  pursued:  and  the  Bishops 
were  impeached  for  high  treason  upon  this  ground. 
They  were  reviled  for  the  part  which  they  bore 
in  state  affairs;  and  yet  no  persons  took  a  greater 
share  in  national  concerns,  than  the  very  preach- 
ers by  whom  they  were  reproached  with  most 
vehemence  on  that  score.  None  were  so  active 
in  political  intrigues  as  the  seditious  Clergy.  If 
petitions  tending  to  subvert  the  civil  and  ecclesi- 
astical constitution  were  to  be  got  up ;  if  the 
subscriptions  of  honest  men  were  to  be  obtained 
to  a  moderate  paper,  and  transferred  to  an  in- 
flammatory one,  which  they  conscientiously  dis- 
approved ;  if  mobs  were  to  be  collected  for  inti- 
midating the  House  of  Lords ;  if  a  cry  was  to  be 
raised  for  the  blood  of  an  individual  whom  the 
faction  feared  or  hated;  if  the  trumpet  of  rebel- 
lion was  to  be  blown,  the  Puritanical  Clergy 
performed  these  services  for  their  friends  in  Par- 
liament. And  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  the 
most  active  in  this  work  of  wickedness  were  not 
the  men  who  had  been  suspended  for  nonconfor- 
mity, but  those  of  Abbot's  school,  who,  complying 
with  the  rubric  as  long  as  they  stood  in  fear  of 
Laud's  vigilant  superintendence,  had  hitherto  en- 
joyed the  benefices  of  the  Church,  while  they 
waited  for  an  opportunity  to  pervert  its  doctrine, 
overthrow  its  discipline,  and  proscribe  its  forms. 
The  Parliament  began  by  marking  Strafford 


xvn.J  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS.  365 


for  destruction,  because  they  feared  him.  From 
hatred  and  the  viler  motive  of  gratifying  a  de- 
luded multitude  they  accused  Laud  also  of  high 
treason.  He  had  long  known  that  the  rabble 
thirsted  for  his  blood,  but  this  he  said  "was 
strange  news  to  his  innocency,  having  to  the  ut- 
termost of  his  understanding  served  the  King  with 
all  duty  and  faithfulness,  and  without  any  known 
or  wilful  disservice  to  the  state  there-while."  So 
that  when  the  charge  was  made,  he  declared  with 
honest  indignation  his  persuasion  that  not  a  man 
in  the  house  believed  it  in  his  heart.  The  .Scotch 
also  were  instigated  to  present  a  memorial  against 
these  illustrious  victims,  as  odious  incendiaries, 
who  had  caused  all  the  present  calamities.  Laud 
was  committed  to  the  Tower,  and  left  there  in 
the  hope  that  age  and  imprisonment  would  free 
his  persecutors  from  further  trouble.  The  im- 
peachment against  Strafford  was  vigorously  pur- 
sued ;  it  was  intended  to  deprive  the  Bishops  of 
the  right  of  voting  in  his  cause,  upon  the  plea 
that  it  was  a  case  of  blood,  in  which  the  canons 
forbade  them  to  take  a  part.  They  were  per- 
suaded voluntarily  to  withdraw,  in  the  hope  of 
obtaining  favour,  for  the  censure  concerning  the 
canons  was  hanging  over  them ;  and  thus  for  the 
vain  prospect  of  conciliating  their  declared  ene- 
mies (a  purpose  which  never  has  been,  and  never 
will  be  obtained,  by  any  concessions  arising  from 


366 


CHARLES  I. 


[chat. 


fear  or  weakness,)  they  disheartened  as  well  as 
displeased  their  friends,  betrayed  their  own  rights, 
and  deserted  an  innocent  and  persecuted  man  in 
his  hour  of  need.  They  soon  perceived  what  was 
the  reward  of  cowardice. 

A  petition  had  already  been  presented  at  the 
Commons  by  the  notorious  Alderman  Penning- 
ton,  r>r  the  total  extirpation  of  episcopacy.  As 
yet  there  were  only  three  leading  men  in  that 
hoi;  who  were  known  to  be  for  destroying  root 
and  branch,  but  these  were  men  of  great  influ- 
ence and  ability,  and  two  of  them,  Sir  Henry 
Vane  and  Hambden,  had  the  wisdom  of  the  ser- 
pent in  perfection.  A  bill  was  now  brought  in  to 
take  away  the  Bishops'  votes  in  Parliament,  and 
to  leave  them  out  in  all  commissions  that  had  any 
relation  to  temporal  affairs.  Lord  Falkland  was 
persuaded  to  concur  in  this  by  the  assurance  of 
Hambden,  that  if  that  bill  past,  nothing  more 
would  be  attempted  to  the  prejudice  of  t lie  Church. 
It  past  the  commons,  but  was  not  even  commit- 
ted by  the  Lords.  Upon  this  a  bill  for  the  utter 
eradication  of  bishops,  deans  and  chapters,  and 
all  offices  dependent  on  them,  was  prepared  by 
St.  John ;  and  Sir  Arthur  Haslerig,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  Vane  and  Cromwell,  who  now  began  to 
appear  among  the  rooters  as  they  were  called, 
prevailed  upon  Sir  Edward  Dering  to  bring  it 
forward. 


XVII.  J 


SIR  EDWARD  DERINU. 


367 


Sir  Edward  Dering  was  a  man  of  fine  person 
and  upright  intentions,  who  possessed  the  most 
dangerous  of  all  endowments  when  unaccompa- 
nied with  sound  judgement, ...  a  ready  eloquence. 
He  had  inherited*  puritanical  opinions,  and  at  a 
season  when  (in  his  own  words)  "many  were 
more  wise  and  some  more  wilful  than  in  former 
time,"  fancied  that  he  had  devised  a  scheme  by 
whkh  the  advantages  of  the  presbyterian  platform 
might  be  combined  with  those  of  an  episcopal 
church.  In  this  he  had  been  influenced  not  more 
by  his  hereditary  prejudices  than  by  a  feeling  of 
hostility  towards  Laud,  whom  nevertheless  he 
respected  for  his  integrity,  and  honoured  for  his 
erudition.  It  was  his  fortune  to  begin  the  attack 
upon  him  by  preferring  a  complaint  of  some  local 
grievances,  which,  as  member  for  Kent,  he  had 
been  instructed  to  bring  forward.  The  string 
which  had  thus  been  struck,  was  (said  he)  "of 
so  right  a  tune  to  them  that  are  stung  with  a 


*  It  was  one  of  the  same  name  and  family  who,  "  preaching 
before  Queen  Elizabeth,  told  her,  that  when  in  persecution 
under  her  sister  Queen  Mary,  her  motto  was  tanquam  ovis,  as 
a  sheep,  but  now  it  might  be  tanquam  indomita  juvenca  as 
an  untamed  heifer.  But  surely,  says  Fuller,  the  Queen  re- 
tained much  of  her  ancient  motto,  as  a  sheep,  in  that  she 
patiently  endured  so  public  (and  conceived  causeless)  re 
proof,  in  inflicting  no  punishment  upon  him,  save  command- 
ing him  to  forbear  further  preaching  at  the  Court." 


368 


CHARLES  I. 


[chap. 


tarantula,  that  I  was  instantly  voiced  more  as 
they  would  have  me  than  I  was."  He  found 
himself  "  with  as  many  new  friends  as  the  Pri- 
mate had  old  enemies ;"  but  this,  which  would 
have  alarmed  a  wise  man,  inflated  a  vain  one,  and 
made  him  an  apt  instrument  for  the  subtle  revo- 
lutionists by  whom,  few  as  they  still  were  in 
number,  the  House  of  Commons  was  in  fact  di- 
rected. Their  present  end  was  answered  by  this 
manifestation  of  their  views,  which  would  alike 
encourage  their  own  faction  and  dismay  their  op- 
ponents ;  and  they  were,  therefore,  contented  with 
bringing  in  the  bill,  and  laying  it  by  after  the  first 
reading,  for  a  more  convenient  season. 

Their  next  measure  was  to  draw  up  a  protes- 
tation (in  imitation  of  the  covenant)  for  the  mem- 
bers of  both  houses,  whereby  they  bound  them- 
selves to  maintain  "  the  true  reformed  protestant 
religion  expressed  in  the  doctrine  of  the  Church 
of  England  against  all  popery  and  popish  innova- 
tion within  this  realm."  And  after  the  lords  had 
taken  it,  they  then,  and  not  till  then,  explained 
that  these  words  were  "  not  to  be  extended  to 
the  maintaining  of  any  form  of  worship,  disci- 
pline, or  government,  nor  of  any  rites  or  ceremo- 
nies of  the  said  Church."  The  High  Commis- 
sion Court  was  now  put  down,  a  tribunal  which 
during  half  a  century  had  given  offence  to  none 
but  the  enemies  of  the  Church;  its  authority  had 


xvii.]  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS.  369 


afterwards  been  equally  extended  and  abused ; 
it  had  taken  upon  itself,  with  questionable  lega- 
lity, to  impose  fines,  and  that  authority  having 
been  used  more  frequently  and  more  heavily  after 
the  fines  had  been  granted  by  the  King  in  aid  of 
the  reparation  of  St.  Paul's,  (a  national  and  neces- 
sary work  upon  which  Laud  was  earnestly  intent,) 
it  had  become  peculiarly  obnoxious.  But  the 
aim  of  the  ruling  faction  was  destruction,  not  re- 
formation ;  and  by  the  same  act  which  suppressed 
an  arbitrary  tribunal,  all  wholesome  ecclesiastical 
discipline  was  in  fact  destroyed. 

The  House  of  Lords  meantime  appointed  a 
committee  for  religion,  consisting  of  twenty  Peers 
and  ten  Bishops,  who  were  to  inquire  into  doc- 
trines as  well  as  ceremonies,  and  a  sub-committee, 
consisting  wholly  of  clergy,  to  prepare  matters 
for  their  cognizance.  The  members  of  the  latter 
were  chiefly  doctrinal  Puritans,  a  few  were  right- 
ly affected  in  all  things  to  the  Church  whereof 
they  were  members,  a  larger  proportion  were 
zealots  in  the  popular  cause.  Williams,  Bishop 
of  Lincoln,  formerly  Lord  Keeper,  and  soon  af- 
terwards Archbishop  of  York,  was  President  of 
both  committees ;  he  was  a  person  of  great  eru- 
dition and  abilities;  but  animosity  against  Laud 
had  tempted  him  first  to  actions  ill-according 
with  his  station  and  his  duty ;  and  resentment 
for  a  persecution,  which,  if  not  originally  unjust. 

vol.  n.  24 


370 


CHARLES  1. 


[chap. 


had  been  inordinately  severe,  betrayed  him  now 
into  a  more  inexcusable  course  of  conduct.  The 
Primate  in  his  imprisonment  apprehended  from 
tins  committee  great  dishonour  to  the  Church, 
and  illimitable  evil.  How  far,  indeed,  Williams 
might  have  gone  with  the  Calvinists,  and  what 
concessions  he  might  have  made  to  the  root-and- 
branch  men,  whom  no  compromise  could  have 
conciliated,  cannot  be  known.  Their  brethren 
in  the  Commons  were  too  eager  for  triumph,  and 
too  sure  of  it,  to  wait  the  slow  proceedings  of 
these  committees,  and  they  brought  in  a  bill  for 
the  suppression  of  deans  and  chapters.  The  ar- 
guments for  this  spoliation  were  such  as  base  and 
malicious  minds  address  to  the  ignorant  and  the 
vulgar,  when  they  seek  to  carry  into  effect,  by 
means  of  popular  clamour,  a  purpose  of  foul  in- 
justice. They  were  refuted  with  great  ability 
by  Dr.  H.uket,  who  was  admitted  to  speak  before 
the  House  in  behalf  of  the  dignified  Clergy  ;  by 
Sir  Benjamin  Rudyard,  one  of  the  most  eloquent 
men  in  that  best  age  of  English  eloquence ;  and 
by  Sir  Edward  Dering  himself,  who,  when  he  had 
discovered  too  late  at  what  the  reformers  were 
aiming,  came  forward  manfully,  and  proved  the 
uprightness  of  his  own  intentions,  by  atoning,  as 
far  as  was  in  his  power,  for  the  errors  into  which 
he  had  been  beguiled. 

The  party  were  not  disheartened  though  their 


xvii.]  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS.  371 


measures  were  sometimes  defeated  in  the  Com- 
mons, and  sometimes  rejected  by  the  Lords.  As 
the  slightest  introduction  of  morbific  matter  into 
the  human  system  suffices  to  induce  disease  or 
death,  so  when  destructive  opinons  are  once 
avowed  in  a  legislative  body,  they  continue  to 
work  till  the  crisis  is  produced  ;  the  very  strength 
of  evil  consisting  in  its  restlessness  and  activity. 
The  puritanical  members  were  always  at  their 
post,  always  alert,  and  on  the  watch  for  every  oc- 
casion ;  their  opponents  too  often  absented  them- 
selves from  the  House,  wearied  by.  pertinacity, 
or  disgusted  by  violence  ;  many  fatally  persuaded 
themselves  that  their  individual  presence  would 
contribute  little  to  the  preservation  of  govern- 
ment ;  but  advantage  was  taken  of  their  absence, 
to  carry  the  most  mischievous  questions  ;  thus  a 
handful  of  determined  rooters,  first  by  address 
and  vigilance,  then  by  intimidation  and  the  help 
of  the  mob,  succeeded  in  making  Parliament 
speak  their  language ;  and  many  of  the  best  and 
noblest  members  sacrificed  at  last  their  fortunes 
and  their  lives,  defending  unsuccessfully  in  the 
field,  that  cause  which,  if  they  had  never  relaxed 
from  their  duty  in  the  senate,  would  never  have 
been  brought  to  the  decision  of  arms. 

The    root-and-branch  men,  feeling  now  that 
audacity  ensured  success,  and  that  every  success 
increased  their  numbers  and  their  strength,  moved 
24 


[ 


372 


SIR  EDWARD  DERING.  [chap. 


that  there  might  be  liberty  to  disuse  the  Common 
Prayer,  by  reason  that  in  many  things  it  gave 
offence  to  tender  consciences.  The  majority  at 
once  rejected  the  motion,  well  knowing  that  "  if 
that  which  offends  the  weak  brother  is  to  be 
avoided,  much  more  that  which  offends  the 
strong ;"  and  they  voted  that  it  should  be  duly 
observed.  But  on  the  very  next  day,  in  violation 
of  all  parliamentary  rules,  the  Puritans,  finding 
themselves  masters  of  a  thin  House,  suspended 
the  yesterday's  order,  and  past  a  resolution  that 
the  communion-table  should  be  removed  from  its 
appointed  place,  the  rails  which  enclosed  it  pulled 
down,  and  the  chancel  levelled,  and  that  no  man 
should  presume  to  bow  at  the  name  of  Jesus. 
Sir  Edward  Dering,  who  now  on  all  occasions 
stood  forward  in  defence  of  the  Church,  opposed 
this  last  infamous  decree  with  great  feeling. 
"  Hear  me,"  said  he,  "  with  patience,  and  refute 
me  with  reason.  Your  command  is  that  all  cor- 
poral bowing  at  the  name  Jesus  be  henceforth 
forborne. 

"  I  have  often  wished  that  we  might  decline 
these  dogmatical  resolutions  in  divinity.  I  say  it 
again  and  again,  that  we  are  not  idonei  et  compe- 
tentes  judices  in  doctrinal  determination.  The 
theme  we  are  now  upon  is  a  sad  point.  I  pray 
you  consider  severely  on  it. 

"  You  know  there  is  no  other  Name  under  Hea- 


xvh.]  SIR  EDWARD  DERING.  373 


ven  given  among  men,  whereby  we  must  be  saved. 
You  know  that  this  is  a  Name  above  every  name. 
Oleum  effusum  nomen  ejus ;  it  is  the  carol  of  his 
own  spouse.  This  Name  is  by  a  Father  styled 
mel  in  ore,  melos  in  aure,  jubilum  in  corde.  This  it 
is  the  sweetest  and  the  fullest  of  comfort  of  all 
the  Names  and  attributes  of  God,  God  my  Saviour. 
If  Christ  were  not  our  Jesus,  Heaven  were  then 
our  envy,  which  is  now  our  blessed  hope. 

"And  must  I,  Sir,  hereafter  do  no  exterior  re- 
verence,...  none  at  all,  ...to  God  my  Saviour,  at 
the  mention  of  his  saving  name  Jesus?  Why,  Sir, 
not  to  do  it, . . .  to  omit  it,  and  to  leave  it  undone, 
it  is  questionable,  it  is  controvertible  ;  it  is  at  least 
a-  moot  point  in  divinity.  But  to  deny  it,  . . .  to 
forbid  it  to  be  done  ! . . .  take  heed,  Sir  !  God  will 
never  own  you  if  you  forbid  his  honour.  Truly, 
Sir,  it  horrors  me  to  think  of  this.  For  my  part, 
I  do  humbly  ask  pardon  of  this  House,  and  there- 
upon I  take  leave  and  liberty  to  give  you  my  re- 
solute resolution.  I  may,  I  must,  I  will  do  bodily 
reverence  unto  my  Saviour ;  and  that  upon  oc- 
casion taken  at  the  mention  of  his  saving  name 
Jesus.  And  if  I  should  do  it  also  as  oft  as  the 
name  of  God,  or  Jehovah,  or  Christ,  is  named  in 
our  solemn  devotions,  I  do  not  know  any  argu- 
ment in  divinity  to  control  me. 

"  Mr.  Speaker,  I  shall  never  be  frighted  from 
this,  with  that  fond  shallow  argument,  *  Oh  you 


374  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS.  [chaf. 


make  an  Idol  of  a  name !'  I  beseech  you,  Sir, 
paint  me  a  voice  ;  make  a  sound  visible  if  you  can. 
When  you  have  taught  mine  ears  to  see,  and 
mine  eyes  to  hear,  1  may  then  perhaps  understand 
this  subtle  argument.  In  the  mean  time  reduce 
this  dainty  species  of  new  idolatry  under  its  pro- 
per head,  the  second  commandment,  if  you  can: 
and  if  I  find  it  there,  I  will  fly  from  it  ultra  Sau- 
romatas,  any  whither  with  you. 

"  Was  it  ever  heard  before,  that  any  men  of 
any  religion,  in  any  age,  did  ever  cut  short  or 
abridge  any  worship,  upon  any  occasion  to  their 
God  ?  Take  heed,  Sir,  and  let  us  all  take  heed 
whither  we  are  going  !  If  Christ  be  Jesus,  if  Jesus 
be  God,  all  reverence,  exterior  as  well  as  interior, 
is  too  little  for  him.  I  hope  we  are  not  going  up 
the  back  stairs  to  Socinianism  ! 

"  In  a  word,  certainly,  Sir,  I  shall  never  obey 
your  order,  so  long  as  I  have  a  head  to  lift  up  to 
Heaven,  so  long  as  I  have  an  eye  to  lift  up  to  Hea-  . 
ven.    For  these  are  corporal   bowings,  and  my 
Saviour  shall  have  them  at  his  name  Jesus  !" 

It  is  not  by  eloquence  and  reason  that  men  can 
be  deterred  from  factious  purposes.  The  reso- 
lutions were  past  and  carried  to  the  Lords,  who 
receiving  them  with  becoming  indignation,  both 
at  the  irregularity,  and  the  intent  of  such  pro- 
ceedings, refused  to  join  with  the  Commons,  and 
directed  an  order  made  in  full  Parliament,  seven 


xvn.]  TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


months  before,  to  be  printed,  enjoining  that  the 
divine  service  should  be  duly  performed  accord- 
ing to  law,  and  that  all  who  disturbed  that  whole- 
some order  should  be  severely  punished.  But 
the  Commons,  now  wholly  under  guidance  of 
the  root-and-branch  men,  commanded  the  peo- 
ple of  England  to  submit  to  their  direction  and 
disregard  the  order  of  the  Lords,  trampling  thus 
upon  the  privileges  of  the  Peerage,  as  they  had 
already  done  upon  those  of  the  Clergy  and  of  the 
Throne.  For  the  faction  had  now  advanced  so 
far,  that  they  treated  with  contemptuous  disre- 
gard the  forms  of  law  and  the  principles  of  the 
Government,  except  when  it  was  convenient  to 
wrest  them  to  their  own  purposes,  and  then  in- 
deed they  were  insisted  on  with  the  utmost  rigour 
of  tyranny.  In  their  spirit  of  contempt  for  an- 
cient usages,  when  the  house  adjourned  they  ap- 
pointed a  Committee  to  transact  business  during 
the  recess,  which  was  in  fact  little  short  of  com- 
mitting the  Government  into  their  hands ;  and 
the  first  act  of  the  Committee  thus  unconstitu- 
tionally appointed,  was  to  exercise  their  usurped 
jurisdiction  in  ecclesiastical  affairs,  sending  forth 
their  orders  to  be  read  in  all  Churches,  and  au- 
thorizing the  parishioners  of  any  parish  to  choose 
a  lecturer,  and  maintain  him  at  their  own  charge. 
Immediately  the  London  pulpits,  and  those  in  the 
larger  provincial  towns,  where  the  Puritans  had 


376 


CHARLES  I. 


obtained  a  footing,  were  manned  with  preachers, 
ministers,  not  of  peace  and  Christian  morality, 
but  of  hatred,  violence  and  rebellion,  who,  as  if 
thej  studied  scripture  merely  to  distort  it,  applied 
its  denunciations  directly  against  the  Bishops  and 
the  order  of  the  Church ;  and  with  scarce  the 
semblance  of  a  cover,  against  the  King  and  the 
frame  of  the  State  also.  They  did  this  with  the 
confidence  of  entire  impunity,  having  now  ob- 
tained that  liberty  of  speech  and  of  the  press, 
which  they  desired,  that  is,  unrestrained  license 
for  their  own  party,  and  the  power  of  punishing 
any  who  should  speak  or  write  against  them, 
with  a  vigour  beyond  the  law.  They  exercised 
this  power  in  the  case  of  Dr.  Pocklington,  one  of 
the  King's  chaplains,  who  had  written  a  treatise 
against  that  superstitious  observance  of  the  Sab- 
bath, which  the  Puritans  were  endeavouring  to 
enforce,  and  another,  concerning  the  antiquity  of 
altars  in  Christian  Churches  ;  questions  which  he 
had  discussed  with  becoming  temper  and  mode- 
ration, as  well  as  with  competent  erudition  and 
sound  judgement.  And  for  this  he  was,  by  sen- 
tence of  the  House  of  Lords,  prohibited  from  ever 
coming  within  the  verge  of  the  King's  courts,  de- 
prived of  all  his  livings,  dignities  and  preferments, 
and  disabled  from  ever  holding  any  place  or  dignity 
in  Church  or  Commonwealth.  The  books  were 
ordered  to  be  burnt  by  the  hangman,  and  the 


xvii.]         TRIUMPH  OF  THE  PURITANS. 


377 


author  was  saved  from  further  punishment  only 
by  timely  death. 

As  soon  as  the  order  respecting  the  altar  was 
issued,  the  Pnritins  broke  loose  :  painted  win- 
dows were  demolished,  rails  torn  up,  monumental 
brasses  stolen,  tombs  defaced  and  destroyed.  It 
was  now  plainly  seen  what  might  be  expected 
from  their  full  triumph,  when  such  was  their 
conduct  upon  the  first  success.  Wherever  a  few 
zealots  led  the  way,  a  rabble  was  easily  collected 
to  bear  their  part,  for  the  love  of  mischief,  or  the 
hope  of  plunder,  the  sectarians  suffering  and  en- 
couraging these  outrages,  for  the  pleasure  of  in- 
sulting the  loyal  Clergy,  and  showing  their  con- 
tempt and  hatred  of  the  Church.  The  authority 
was  in  their  hands  now,  and  never  had  the  High 
Commission  Cour',  in  its  worst  days,  so  tyranni- 
cally abused  its  power ...  If  any  were  found  vir- 
tuous enough  to  oppose  them,  it  was  sufficient  to 
complain  of  such  persons  to  the  House  of  Com- 
mons, for  words  of  dangerous  consequence,  and 
they  were  forthwith,  without  a  trial,  punished  as 
malefactors,  by  arbitrary  fine  and  imprisonment. 

With  the  same  contempt  of  established  usages 
the  root-and-branch  men  brought  in  again  the 
Bill  for  taking  away  the  Bishops'  votes  in  Par- 
liament, though  it  had  been  thrown  out  in  the 
former  part  of  the  session  ;  that  objection  they 
treated  with  contempt,  affirming  that  the  good 


378 


CHARLES  I. 


[chap. 


of  the  kingdom  absolutely  depended  upon  this 
measure.  And  as  the  King  at  this  time  filled  up 
the  vacant  sees,  though  he  had  named  in  every 
instance  men  of  great  eminence,  and  absolutely 
without  reproach,  it  was  proposed  in  the  Com- 
mons, that  the  King  should  be  desired  to  make 
no  new  Bishops,  till  the  controversy  concerning 
the  government  of  the  Church  should  be  ended. 
Failing  in  this,  they  demanded  that  the  Bishops 
should  have  no  voice'  upon  the  question  of  taking 
away  their  votes,  as  being  parties ;  and  as  the 
Lords  were  not  yet  sufficiently  intimidated  to 
yield  to  this,  their  next  motion  was,  that  the 
Bishops  whom  they  had  impeached  for  making 
the  Canons  might  be  sequestered  from  the 
House,  till  they  should  be  brought  to  judgement. 
In  all  these  proceedings  they  were  supported  by 
the  legal  members  of  the  faction,  who,  "  prosti- 
tuting the  dignity  and  learning  of  their  profes- 
sion to  the  cheap  and  vile  affectation  of  popular 
applause,"  made  use  of  their  knowledge  of  the 
law  to  pervert  it,  and  to  subvert  the  constitution- 
Petitions  against  episcopacy  were  now  fabricated 
by  a  puritanical  junta  in  London,  and  poured  in 
upon  Parliament ;  . .  .  even  the  apprentices  and 
the  porters  had  their  separate  petitions  prepared 
for  them,  and  these  precious  addresses  to  the 
Legislature  were  backed  by  the  rabble  in  whose 
name  they  were  composed. 


XVII.] 


EPISCOPACY. 


379 


In  opposition  to  these  effusions  of  sectarian 
rancour  and  vulgar  ignorance,  counter-petitions 
were  presented  from  various  parts  of  the  country, 
signed  by  the  greatest  and  most  respectable  part 
of  the  gentry,  and  a  large  majority  of  the  free- 
holders, speaking  the  real  sentiments  of  the  better 
and  greater  part  of  the  nation,  and  expressing 
fears  which  were  but  too  fully  justified  by  the 
event.  They  represented  that  Bishops  had 
been  instituted  in  the  time  of  the  apostles;  that 
they  were  the  great  lights  of  the  Church  in  all 
the  first  general  councils  ;  that  many  of  them 
had  sown  the  seeds  of  religion  in  their  blood ; 
that  we  owed  to  them  the  redemption  of  the 
Gospel  from  Romish  corruption,  many  of  that 
order  having  been  glorious  martyrs  in  this  coun- 
try for  the  truth,  and  many  who  were  yet  living 
its  strenuous  defenders  against  the  common 
enemy  of  Rome ;  that  their  government  had  been 
so  long  approved  and  established  by  the  common 
and  statute  laws  of  this  kingdom,  and  nothing 
in  their  doctrines  dissonant  from  the  rule  of  God, 
or  the  articles  ratified  by  law.  It  had  consisted 
with  monarchy  ever  since  the  English  monarchy 
was  Christian  ;  and  when  they  were  now  called 
upon  to  try  whether  any  other  form  of  Church 
government  can  or  will,  they  could  not  but  ex- 
press a  great  fear  of  what  was  intended,  and  what 
was  likely  to  ensue.    They  apprehended  an  ab- 


380 


CHARLES  L 


solute  innovation  of  Presbyterian  Government ; 
"  whereby,"  said  the  petitioners,  "  we,  who  are 
now  governed  by  the  canon  and  civil  laws,  dis- 
pensed by  twenty-six  Ordinaries,  easily  respon- 
sible to  Parliament  for  any  deviation  from  the 
rule  of  the  law,  conceive  we  should  be  exposed 
to  the  mere  arbitrary  government  of  a  numerous 
presbytery,  who,  together  with  their  ruling  el- 
ders, will  arise  to  near  forty  thousand  Church 
Governors,  and  with  their  adherents,  must  needs 
bear  so  great  a  sway  in  the  Commonwealth,  that, 
if  future  inconveniences  shall  be  found  in  that 
government,  we  humbly  offer  to  consideration, 
how  these  shall  be  reducible  by  Parliament,  how 
consistent  with  monarchy,  and  how  dangerously 
conducible  to  anarchy."  They  represented  that 
the  liberties  of  the  Clergy  had  been  indulged  to 
them  by  Magna  Charta,  granted  and  confirmed 
by  many  Kings,  and  about  thirty  Parliaments  in 
express  acts  :  the  violation  of  that  charter,  by  an 
intrenchment  upon  the  rights  of  the  lay  subject, 
was  justly  accounted  a  great  grievance  ;  and  if 
the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  Clergy  were  taken 
away,  any  of  us  would  have  cause  to  fear  that  his 
own  might  be  next  in  question. 

Sir  Thomas  Aston,  who  presented  one  of  these 
petitions,  was  reprimanded  by  the  House,  and 
persons  were  brought  before  its  bar,  to  be  cen- 
sured for  printing  and  dispersing  it :  but  the  se- 


XVII.] 


EPISCOPACY. 


331 


ditious  petitioners  were  favourably  received,  and 
thanked  for  their  zeal  and  their  good  intentions. 
With  the  same  open  contempt  of  decency,  the 
Commons  made  it  one  of  their  complaints  in  that 
memorable  remonstrance  to  the  King,  which  was 
the  manifesto  of  rebellion,  that  he  had  received 
petitions  which  they  qualified  as  mutinous  and 
malignant.  The  King  replied  with  becoming  re- 
sentment, "  Have  so  many  petitions  even  against 
the  form  and  constitution  of  the  kingdom,  and 
the  laws  established,  been  joyfully  received?... 
Hath  a  multitude  of  mean,  unknown,  inconsider- 
able, contemptible  persons  about  the  city  and 
suburbs  of  London,  had  the  liberty  to  petition 
against  the  government  of  the  Church,  against 
the  book  of  Common  Prayer,  and  been  thanked 
for  it  ?  and  shall  it  be  called  mutiny  in  the  gra- 
vest and  best  citizens  of  London,  in  the  gentle- 
men and  commonalty  of  Kent,  to  frame  peti- 
tions upon  these  grounds,  and  desire  to  be  go- 
verned by  the  known  laws  of  the  land,  not  by 
orders  or  votes  of  either  or  both  Houses  ?  To 
stir  up  men  to  a  care  of  maintaining  the  discipline 
of  the  Church,  upholding  and  continuing  the  re- 
verence and  solemnity  of  God's  service,  and  en- 
couraging of  learning,  is  mutiny!  Let  heaven 
and  earth,  God  and  man,  judge  between  us  and 
these  men !" 


382  PROCEEDINGS  AGAINST  [chap. 


The  root-and-branch  men,  meantime,  continued 
to  exasperate  popular  feeling  against  the  Bishops, 
by  prosecuting  the  charge  concerning  the  canons, 
which  they  were  for  making  treason ;  though 
the  lawyers  told  them  they  might  as  well 
call  it  adultery.  At  length  they  brought  in  a 
Bill  to  punish  these  and  the  other  members  of 
the  Convocation  by  fines,  Laud's  being  fixed  at 
the  enormous  sum  of  twenty  thousand  pounds ; 
the  other  prelates  from  ten  thousand  pounds  to 
one,  and  the  inferior  members  from  two  hundred 
to  one  thousand.  It  does  not  appear  that  these 
fines  were  exacted.  The  enemies  of  the  Church 
were  aiming  at  its  utter  subversion,  and  they  so 
soon  succeeded  in  plundering  the  loyal  Clergy  of 
their  whole  property,  that  they  spared  themselves 
the  trouble  of  collecting  a  part.  The  Palace  and 
the  Houses  of  Parliament  were  now  beset  with 
mobs  crying  out.  No  Bishops.  The  names  of 
those  persons  who  ventured  to  defend  them  were 
placarded  as  disaffected  members,  and  the  Pre- 
lates themselves  were  assailed  with  such  insults 
and  outrages,  that  they  absented  themselves 
from  Parliament,  in  fear  of  their  lives.  Upon 
this,  by  advice  of  Williams,  who  had  been  made 
Archbishop  of  York,  and  having  acted  a  base  and 
flagitious  part  in  aid  of  the  faction,  was  rewarded 
with  a  double  portion  of  popular  abhorrence, 
they  presented  a  protest  to  the  House  against  all 


XV11.J 


THE  BISHOPS. 


383 


the  acts  which  might  be  done  while  they  were 
deterred  from  doing  their  duties  in  it.  Instant 
advantage  was  taken  of  this  by  the  leaders  of  a 
party,  who  never  lost  any  occasion  that  was  of- 
fered them,  and  they  committed  all  the  Bishops 
who  had  signed  it  to  the  Tower,  upon  an  accu- 
sation of  High  Treason;  a  charge  so  preposter- 
ous, that  none  but  the  most  audacious  and  un- 
just of  men  would  have  preferred  it.  The  Bill 
for  depriving  them  of  their  seats  in  the  House  of 
Peers  was  now  hurried  through  Parliament;  and 
the  Queen,  influenced,  it  is  believed,  by  her  priests, 
who  were  acting  under  instructions  from  France, 
persuaded  the  King  to  pass  it,  contrary  to  his  own 
judgement  and  conscience  ;  an  act  in  every  respect 
unworthy  and  unwise,  whereby  he  lost  even  more 
friends  than  he  sacrificed. 

Every  concession  which  Charles  made  to  fac- 
tion an.l  violence,  produced  the  uniform  and  sure 
effect  of  drawing  upon  him  fresh  demmds,  each 
more  unreasonable  than  the  last.  The  intent 
was  to  drive  him  to  an  appeal  to  arms,  when 
they  should  have  stript  him  of  all  means  for  ren- 
dering that  appeal  formidable  ;  but  the  loyalty  of 
the  great  body  of  the  nobility  and  gentlemen  of 
England,  who,  with  heroic  fidelity,  sacrificed  their 
fortunes  and  lives  in  his  service,  rendered  the 
contest  longer  and  more  doubtful  than  his  ene- 
mies had  expected.    The  faction,  meantime,  be- 


384 


ASSEMBLY  OF  DIVINES.  [chaf. 


ing  masters  of  the  capital,  and  acting  as  if  the 
sole  authority  were  legally  vested  in  their  hands, 
pursued  their  designs  against  the  Church  with 
all  the  unrelenting  malice  of  inveterate  and  tri- 
umphant hatred.  They  had  formed  a  committee 
for  religion,  which  received,  like  an  inquisition, 
complaints  from  any  person  against  scandalous 
ministers.  To  bow  at  the  name  of  Jesus,  or  re- 
quire communicants  to  receive  the  sacrament  at 
the  altar,  was  cause  enough  for  scan'lal  now  ;  and 
any  thing  which  opposed  or  olfended  the  ruling 
faction  was  comprehended  under  the  general 
name  of  malignity,  a  charge  as  fatal  to  the  for- 
tunes of  those  against  whom  it  was  brought,  as 
that  of  heresy  would  have  been  to  their  lives  in  a 
Catholic  country.  They  convoked  also  an  as- 
sembly of  Divines  to  frame  a  new  model  of 
Church  Government.  A  few  of  the  loyal  Clergy 
were  appointed,  most  of  whom,  in  obedience  to 
the  King's  command,  refused  to  appear  upon  an 
illegal  summons ;  a  large  proportion  of  seditious 
preachers,  who  now  openly  professed  their  Pres- 
byterian principles ;  some  honcster  men,  though 
further  gone  in  the  disease  of  the  age,  who,  hav- 
ing emigrated  to  Holland,  rather  than  submit  to 
the  order  of  the  Church,  returned  now  to  take 
advantage  of  its  overthrow ;  and  lastly,  certain 
members  of  both  Houses,  and  some  commissioner? 
from  Scotland. 


xvn.]  ASSEMBLY  OF  DIVINES. 


385 


One  of  the  Assembly's  first  public  acts  was  to 
petition  Parliament,  that  a  general  fast  might  be 
appointed.  This  was  afterwards  enjoined  month- 
ly, and  the  sermons  which  on  these  occasions 
were  delivered  before  both  Houses  were  pub- 
lished by  authority  :  they  were  thus  presented 
to  a  deluded  people,  with  all  the  authority  of  a 
Parliament,  which  was  exercising  a  more  des- 
potic power  than  any  King  of  England  had  ever 
pretended  to  claim,  and  of  the  Gospel  itself, 
which  was  now  perverted  to  encourage  plunder, 
persecution  and  rebellion.  "Curse  ye  Meroz, 
curse  ye  bitterly  the  inhabitants  thereof,  because 
they  came  not  to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  to  the 
help  of  the  Lord  against  the  mighty  !"  "  Turn 
your  plough  shares  into  swords  to  fight  the 
Lord's  battles  !"  "  Cursed  be  he  that  keepeth  back 
his  sword  from  blood  !" — was  the  language  of  these 
incendiary  preachers. — "  Vex  the  Midianites  ! 
Abolish  the  Amalekites !  Leave  not  a  rag  that 
belongs  to  popery !  Away  with  it  head  and  tail, 
hip  and  thigh!  Up  with  it  from  the  bottom, 
root  and  branch  !  Down  with  Baal's  altars ; 
down  with  Baal's  priests!"  It  is  better  to  see 
people  lie  wallowing  in  their  blood,  rather  than 
embracing  idolatry  and  superstition  !"  The  effect 
of  such  language,  upon  a  people  already  pos- 
sessed with  the  darkest  spirit  of  sectarian  bigotry, 
was  to  produce  a  temper  as  ferocious  as  that  of 

Vou  ii.  25 


386 


PURITANICAL  PREACHERS.  [chap. 


the  crusaders,  without  any  generous  or  exalted 
sentiment  to  ennoble  it.  There  were  those 
among  them,  who,  according  to  their  own  avowal, 
"  went  to  that  execrable  war,  with  such  a  con- 
trolling horror  upon  their  spirits  from  these  ser- 
mons, that  they  verily  believed  they  should  have 
been  accursed  from  God  for  ever,  if  they  had 
not  acted  their  part  in  that  dismal  tragedy,  and 
heartily  done  the  Devil's  work,  being  so  effec- 
tually called  and  commanded  to  it  in  God's 
name." 

The  apostle's  of  rebellion  gloried  in  their  work, 
and  rejoiced  in  the  condition  to  which  they  had 
reduced  the  country.  "  Thousands  in  England, 
which  would  have  taken  up  arms  to  fight  for  the 
Service  Book,"  said  one  of  these  incendiaries, 
"  have  been  so  hammered  and  hewed  by  the  con- 
tinuance of  God's  judgements  upon  us,  that  now 
they  are  come  to  this,...  let  the  Parliament  and 
Assembly  do  what  they  will  with  prelacy  and 
liturgy,  so  the  sword  may  be  sheathed !  Now 
truth  shall  be  welcome,  so  they  may  have  peace ! 
Our  reformation  would  have  been  very  low,  had 
not  God  raised  the  spirit  of  our  reformers  by  the 
length  of  these  multiplied  troubles.  As  in  mat- 
ters of  state,  the  civil  sword,  being  so  indulgent, 
would  not  take  off  delinquents,  therefore,  the 
Lord  still  renews  the  commission  of  the  military 
sword,  to  do  justice  till  his  counsel  be  fulfilled  : 


XVU  ] 


PURITANICAL  PREACHERS. 


387 


and  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church,  many  poor  de- 
luded people  in  England  were  fond  of  these  need- 
less ceremonies,  who  probably  would  not  have 
been  weaned  from  them,  had  not  God  whipped 
them  off  by  the  continuance  of  their  troubles !" 
"This  vineyard,"  said  another  belwether  of  re- 
bellion, to  the  House  of  Commons,  "  whereof 
God  hath  made  you  keepers,  cannot  but  see  that 
nothing  is  wanting  on  your  part,  for  you  have 
endeavoured  to  fence  it  by  a  settled  militia ;  to 
gather  out  malignants  as  stones  ;  to  plant  it  with 
men  of  piety  as  choice  vines;  to  build  the  tower 
of  a  powerful  ministry  in  the  midst  of  it ;  and  also 
to  make  a  winepress  therein  for  the  squeezing  of 
delinquents." 

As  the  Parliament,  now  that  the  power  was 
in  their  hands,  committed  the  very  same  oppres- 
sive measures,  which  had  been  the  first  and  only 
solid  grounds  of  reproach  against  the  King,  such 
as  illegal  arrests,  arbitrary  punishments,  breach 
of  privileges,  and  the  imposition  of  taxes  without 
consent  of  the  other  estates,  in  all  which  their 
little  finger  was  heavier  than  his  loins  ;  so  did 
the  puritanical  Clergy,  who,  in  their  horror  of 
popery  and  hatred  of  episcopacy,  had  brought 
about  a  civil  war,  assume  to  themselves  the  most 
dangerous  power  of  the  Romish  priesthood,  and 
lay  upon  the  consciences  of  their  fellow  subjects 
a  yoke  tenfold  heavier  than  that  of  which  they 
2ft 


388         PRESBYTERIAN  PRETENSIONS.  [chap. 


had  complained  as  intolerable.  The  Pope's  claim 
to  the  keys  of  St.  Peter  was  not  more  dangerous 
to  the  civil  authority,  than  their  pretensions  to  the 
sceptre  of  Christ;  they  maintained  a  divine  right 
in  Presbytery ;  voted  it  in  the  Assembly  of  Di- 
vines, and  would  have  carried  a  vote  to  the  same 
effect  in  the  Commons,  if  Whitelock  (a  man  of 
good  feelings  and  intentions,  who  adhered  to 
a  bad  cause  only  because  he  wanted  courage  to 
suffer  in  a  good  one,)  had  not  by  his  opposition 
saved  the  house  from  the  absurd  disgrace.  The 
arguments  which  they  set  forth  in  support  of 
their  favourite  doctrine,  that  the  radical  power 
of  government  belongs  to  the  people,  who  have 
consequently  a  right  to  depose  kings  and  to 
punish  them,  were  produced  in  the  very  words 
of  Father  Persons,  the  most  mischievous  and 
treasonable  of  his  books  being  now  with  little 
alteration  prest  into  the  Puritan  cause.  They 
exercised  a  dispensing  power,  by  virtue  of  which 
the  parliamentary  soldiers,  who  had  been  made 
prisoners  and  released  by  the  King  upon  their 
oath  that  they  would  never  bear  arms  against 
him  again,  were  induced  to  break  that  oath,  and 
engage  a  second  time  in  rebellion.  Indulgence 
for  tender  consciences  had  been  their  cry,  when, 
rather  than  wear  the  surplice,  use  the  sign  of  the 
cross  in  baptism,  kneel  at  the  sacrament,  and 
bow  at  the  name  of  their  Redeemer,  they  were 


THE  PARLIAMENT. 


389 


labouring  to  excite  a  civil  war :  yet  even  then, 
such  was  their  own  bloody  intolerance,  they  com- 
plained of  the  King  for  not  putting  to  death  the 
Romish  priests  who  were  in  prison,  and  more  than 
once  required  that  the  laws  against  them  should 
be  put  in  execution  ;  . . .  though  these  laws  had 
never  been  executed,  except  in  cases  of  those  trea- 
sonable practices,  which  had  rendered  their  enact- 
ment necessary.  One  priest,  John  Goodman  by 
name,  for  reprieving  whom  they  had  reproach- 
ed the  King,  actually  petitioned  Charles,  rather  to 
let  him  suiter  than  increase  the  discontent  of  the 
nation,  by  continuing  his  mercy  to  him.  The  King 
washed  his  hands  of  this  innocent  blood,  by  remit- 
ting the  case  entirely  to  Parliament,  declaring  at 
the  same  time,  that  neither  under  Elizabeth,  nor 
his  father,  had  any  priest  been  put  to  death 
merely  for  religion  :  and  Goodman  escaped,  be- 
cause they  were  ashamed  of  giving  orders  them- 
selves for  an  act  of  cruelty,  which  they  would  fain 
have  compelled  the  King  to  commit.  But  so  strict- 
ly did  they  enforce  restrictive  laws,  which  nothing 
but  the  plainest  state  necessity  could  ever  justify, 
that  the  Catholics  were  compelled  to  perform  their 
worship  at  midnight,  and  that  always  in  fear  and 
danger. 

By  one  of  their  laws  the  theatres  were  sup- 
pressed, and  the  players  to  be  fined  for  the  first 
offence,  whipped  for  the  second.     Bv  another, 


THE  PARLIAMENT. 


[chap. 


maypoles  were  to  be  taken  down  as  a  heathenish 
vanity,  abused  to  superstition  and  wickedness. 
Some  zealots  having  voluntarily  agreed  to  fast 
one  day  in  the  week,  for  the  purpose  of  contri- 
buting the  value  of  the  meal  to  what  they  called 
the  good  cause,  an  ordinance  was  passed,  that  all 
within  the  bills  of  mortality  should  pay  upon  every 
Tuesday,  for  three  months,  the  value  of  an  ordina- 
ry meal  for  themselves  and  families ;  and  in  case 
of  non-payment,  distress  was  to  be  made  for  dou- 
ble the  amount,  the  intent  of  this  being,  that  the 
burden  might  not  rest  alone  upon  the  willing  par- 
ty. The  monthly  fast,  happening  to  fall  on  Christ- 
mas-day, was  ordered  to  be  observed  with  the 
more  solemn  humiliation;  because,  said  these  hy- 
pocrites, it  may  call  to  remembrance  our  sins  and 
the  sins  of  our  forefathers,  who  have  turned  this 
fenst,  pretending  the  memory  of  Christ,  into  an  ex- 
treme forgetfulness  of  him,  by  giving  liberty  to  car- 
nal and  sensual  delights. 

Many  of  those  venerable  structures,  which 
were  the  glory  of  the  land,  had  been  destroyed 
at  the  Reformation,  by  the  sacrilegious  rapacity 
of  those  statesmen  and  favourites,  to  whom  they 
had  been  iniquitously  granted.  The  remainder 
were  now  threatened  with  the  same  fate  by  the 
coarse  and  brutal  spirit  of  triumphant  puritanism. 
Lord  Brooke  (who  had  succeeded  to  the  title  and 
estates^  not  to  the  feelings  and  opinions  of  one  of 


xvii.  J  OUTRAGES.  39 1 

the  profoundest  thinkers  whom  this  or  any  other 
country  has  produced,)  said,  he  hoped  to  see  the 
day,  when  not  one  stone  of  St.  Paul's  should  he 
left  upon  another.  A  sentiment  of  vulgar  ma- 
lice towards  Laud  may  have  instigated  the  ruling 
faction,  when  they  demolished  with  axes  and 
hammers  the  carved  work  of  that  noble  struc- 
ture, and  converted  the  body  of  the  church  into 
a  stable  for  their  troopers'  horses.  But  in  other 
places,  where  they  had  no  such  odious  motive, 
they  committed  the  like,  and  even  worse  inde- 
cencies and  outrages,  merely  to  show  their  hatred 
of  the  Church.  It  was  such  acts  of  sacrilege, 
which  brought  a  scandal  and  an  odium  upon  the 
reformed  religion  in  France  and  the  Low  Coun- 
tries, and  stopt  its  progress  there,  which  neither 
the  Kings  of  France  or  Spain  could  have  done, 
if  horror  and  indignation  had  not  been  excited 
against  it  by  this  brutal  and  villainous  fanaticism. 
In  some  churches  they  baptized  horses  or  swine, 
in  profane  mockery  of  baptism  :  in  others,  they 
broke  open  the  tombs,  and  scattered  about  the 
bones  of  the  dead,  or,  if  the  bodies  were  entire, 
they  defaced  and  dismembered  them.  At  Sudley 
they  made  a  slaughter-house  of  the  chancel,  cut 
up  the  carcasses  upon  the  communion  table,  and 
threw  the  garbage  into  the  vault  of  the  Chan- 
doses,  insulting  thus  the  remains  of  some  of  the 
most  heroic  men,  who.  in  their  day,  defended. 


392 


CLERGY  EJECTED. 


and  did  honour  to  their  country.  At  Westminster 
the  soldiers  sat  smoking  and  drinking  at  the  altar, 
and  lived  in  the  abbey,  committing  every  kind  of 
indecency  there,  which  the  Parliament  saw  and 
permitted.  No  cathedral  escaped  without  some 
injury  ;  painted  windows  were  broken,  statues  pul- 
led down  or  mutilated  ;  carvings  demolished  ;  the 
organs  sold  piecemeal,  for  the  value  of  the  mate- 
rials, or  set  up  in  taverns.  At  Lambeth,  Parker's 
monument  was  thrown  down,  that  Scott,  to  whom 
the  palace  had  been  allotted  for  his  portion  of  the 
spoils,  might  convert  the  chapel  into  a  hall  ;  the 
Archbishop's  body  was  taken,  not  out  of  his  grave 
alone,  but  out  of  his  coffin ;  the  lead  in  which  it 
had  been  enclosed  was  sold,  and  the  remains  were 
buried  in  a  dunghill. 

A  device  was  soon  found  for  ejecting  the  loyal 
clergy,  all  indeed  who  were  not  prepared  to  go 
all  lengths  with  the  root-and-branch  men.  The 
better  to  secure  the  assistance  of  the  Scotch 
against  the  King,  the  two  Houses  past  an  act 
that  the  Covenant  should  be  taken,  whereby  all 
who  subscribed  it  bound  themselves  to  endea- 
vour the  extirpation  of  episcopal  Church  govern- 
ment. All  persons  above  the  age  of  eighteen  were 
required  to  take  it ;  and  such  ministers  as  refused, 
were  reported  to  Parliament  as  malignants,  and 
proceeded  against  accordingly.  No  fewer  than 
seven  thousand  clergymen  were  upon  this  ground 


xvii.] 


CHILLINGWORTH. 


393 


ejected  from  their  livings ;  so  faithful  were  the 
great  body  of  the  clergy  in  the  worst  of  times. 
The  extent  of  private  misery  and  ruin,  which 
this  occasioned,  aggravated  in  no  slight  degree 
the  calamities  of  civil  war.  It  was  not  till  some 
years  had  elapsed,  that  a  fifth  part  of  the  income 
was  ordered  to  be  paid  to  the  wives  and  children 
of  the  sequestered  ministers :  the  order  had  no 
retrospective  effect ;  in  most  instances  it  was  dis- 
regarded, for  the  principles  by  which  the  intru- 
sive incumbents  obtained  their  preferment,  very 
generally  hardened  their  hearts, . . .  and  the  claim- 
ants were  wholly  at  their  mercy  ;  and  even  had 
it  been  scrupulously  paid,  few  were  the  cases, 
wherein  such  a  provision  could  have  preserved 
the  injured  parties  from  utter  want.  The  treat- 
ment, indeed,  of  the  loyal  clergy  was  to  the  last 
degree  inhuman.  Neither  eminent  talents,  nor 
distinguished  learning,  nor  exemplary  virtues, 
could  atone  for  the  crime  of  fidelity  to  their 
order  and  their  King.  Chillingworth  fell  into 
the  hands  of  Sir  William  Waller  as  a  prisoner ; 
he  was  of  feeble  constitution  and  ill  at  the  time  ; 
but  instead  of  showing  that  reverence  to  his 
person,  which  he  would  have  obtained  from  any 
noble  enemy,  the  Puritan  clergy,  who  attended 
Waller's  army,  used  him  with  ,'such  barbarity 
that  he  died  within  a  few  days  ;  nor  did  their 
inhumanity  cease  even  with  his  death,  for  Chey- 


394 


PURITAN  S\ 


[cHAh. 


nel,  one  of  the  most  outrageous  preachers  of  the 
party,  pronounced  a  speech  of  infamous  abuse 
over  his  grave,  and  threw  into  it  to  rot,  as  he 
said,  with  its  author,  that  book  for  which  the 
name  of  Chillingworth  ought  to  have  been  dear, 
not  to  the  Church  of  England  only,  but  to  the 
whole  Protestant  world.  In  his  case  a  peculiar 
degree  of  rancour  may  have  been  displayed,  be- 
cause Laud  was  his  godfather  and  patron,  and 
had  reclaimed  him  from  the  Romish  religion, 
into  which  he  had  been  led  astray ;  recovering 
thus  for  the  Protestant  cause,  one  of  its  ablest 
and  most  distinguished  champions.  But  even 
the  doctrinal  Puritans,  who,  opposing  the  Church 
in  too  many  points,  had  thereby  contributed  to 
the  success  of  those  whom  nothing  short  of  its 
destruction  would  satisfy,  were  involved  without 
discrimination,  and  without  pity,  in  its  ruin. 
They  came  under  the  common  appellation  of 
malignnnts,  and  perceived,  when  too  late,  that 
the*  had  been  in  no  slight  degree  instrumental 
to  their  own  undoing.  Prideaux,  the  Bishop  of 
Exeter,  who  was  reduced  to  such  distress,*  that 

*  It  was  this  Prelate,  who  being:  asked  by  one  of  his  friends 
how  he  did,  replied,  "  Never  better  in  my  life,  only  I  have  too 
great  a  stomach  ;  for  I  have  eaten  that  little  plate  which  the 
sequestrators  left  me  ;  I  have  eaten  a  great  library  of  excel- 
lent books  ;  I  have  eaten  a  great  deal  of  linen  ;  much  of  my 
brass,  some  of  my  pewter ;  and  now  I  am  come  to  eat  iron ; 
and  what  will  come  next  I  know  not." 


xv. i.]         TREATMENT  OF  THE  CLERGY.  395 

in  his  will,  lie  could  bequeath  his  children  nothing 
but  "  pious  poverty,  God's  blessing,  and  a  father's 
prayers,"  used  in  his  latter  days  to  say,  that 
though  he  and  Laud  could  never  understand  one 
another  till  it  was  too  late,  he  now  reverenced  no 
man  more,  for  that  the  Primate  had  wisely  fore- 
seen what  lay  hid  to  many  others. 

Such  of  the  loyal  clergy  as  were  only  plun- 
dered and  turned  out  to  find  subsistence  for  their 
wives  and  families  as  they  could,  or  to  starve, 
were  fortunate  when  compared  with  many  of 
their  brethren.  Some  were  actually  murdered, 
others  perished  in  consequence  of  brutal  usage,  or 
of  confinement  in  close  unwholesome  prisons,  or 
on  shipboard,  where  they  were  crowded  together 
under  hatches,  day  and  night,  without  even  straw 
to  lie  on.  An  intention  was  avowed  of  selling 
them  as  slaves  to  the  plantations,  or  to  the 
Turks  and  Algerines;  and  though  this  was  not 
carried  into  ell'ect,  it  seems  to  have  been  more 
than  a  threat  for  the  purpose  of  extorting  large 
ransoms  from  those  who  could  raise  money,  be- 
cause after  the  battle  of  Worcester  many  of  the 
prisoners  were  actually  shipt  for  Barbadoes  and 
sold  there. 

The  clergy,  amid  all  their  afflictions,  had  the 
consolation  of  knowing  that  they  suffered  in  a 
righteous  cause  ;  they  had  the  sympathy  and  the 
prayers  of  thousands  to  support  them,  and  above 


396 


SIR  EDWARD  DERING. 


all  the  approbation  of  their  own  hearts.  Not 
one  of  them,  in  the  deplh  of  their  earthly  misery, 
was  in  so  pitiable  a  state  as  the  unhappy  though 
highly-gifted  person,  into  whose  mouth  the  first 
guilty  motion  for  destroying  the  fabric  of  the 
Church  government  had  been  put,  by  men  more 
designing  and  truer  to  their  purpose.  Perceiving 
how  he  had  been  duped,  he  resisted  in  the  man- 
liest manner,  and  with  his  characteristic  elo- 
quence, the  measures  against  the  Church,  each 
more  violent  than  the  former,  which  were  now 
brought  forward.  The  Puritans  flattered  him  as 
long  as  he  was  their  tool,  and  he  enjoyed  for  a 
time  all  the  honours  of  a  hollow  popularity  ;  when 
they  could  no  longer  cajole  him,  they  began  to 
advise  and  to  expostulate  with  him  first,  then 
acrimoniously  to  censure  and  severely  to  condemn 
him.  Sir  Edward,  upon  this,  printed  a  collec- 
tion of  his  speeches  in  matters  of  religion,  for 
vindication  of  his  name.  In  this  publication  he 
spoke  of  the  part  which  he  had  borne  in  "strik- 
ing the  first  blow  at  the  tallest  cedar  on  the 
Churches  Lebanon  ;"  still  applauding  himself 
for  what  he  had  done,  but  bearing  a  just  and 
generous  testimony  to  that  magnanimous  suf- 
ferer, whose  whole  merit  he  was  not  yet  capable 
of  appreciating  rightly.  "  His  intent  of  pub- 
lic uniformity,*'  said  he,  "  was  a  good  purpose, 
though  in  the  way  of  his  pursuit  thereof  he  was 


xvir.]  SIR  EDWARD  DERING.  397 

extremely  faulty.  His  book  lately  set  forth  hath 
muzzled  the  Jesuit,  and  shall  strike  the  Papists 
under  the  fifth  rib  when  he  is  dead  and  gone. 
And  being  dead,  wheresoever  his  grave  shall  be, 
Paul's  will  be  his  perpetual  monument,  and  his 
own  book  his  lasting  epitaph.  It  is  true  the 
roughness  of  his  uncourtly  nature  sent  most  men 
discontented  from  him ;  yet  would  he  often  of 
himself  find  ways  and  means  to  sweeten  many  of 
them  when  they  least  looked  for  it.  Lastly,  he 
was  alvvay  one  and  the  same  man.  Begin  with 
him  at  Oxford,  and  so  go  on  to  Canterbury,  he  is 
unmoved,  unchanged.  He  never  complied  with 
the  times,  but  kept  his  own  stead  till  the  times 
came  up  to  him." 

He  spake  also  against  those  who  had  over- 
heated a  furnace  that  was  burning  hot  before  ; 
and  with  pressing  for  ruin,  had  betrayed  the  time 
of  a  blessed  reforming.  "  Take  it  upon  you,"  said 
he,  "for  upon  you,  and  the  blind  ignorant  wil- 
fulness of  such  as  you,  I  do  here  charge  the  sad 
account  of  the  loss  of  such  a  glorious  reformation, 
as  being  the  revived  image  of  the  best  and  purest 
ages,  would  with  its  beauty  and  piety  have  drawn 
the  eye  and  heart  of  all  Christendom  unto  us. 
The  horse-leeches  daughters  do  cry  '  Give, 
give  !'  and  you  that  might  have  had  enough  do 
still  cry  '  More,  more  !'  . . .  These  things  thus 
pressed  and  pursued.  I  do  not  see  but  on  that 


398  SIR  EDWARD  DERING. 


[CHAI-. 


rise  of  the  Kingship  and  Priestship  of  every  par- 
ticular man,  the  wicked  sweetness  of  a  popular 
party  may  hereafter  lahour  to  bring  the  King 
down  to  be  but  as  the  first  among  the  Lords :  and 
then  if  (as  a  gentleman  of  the  House  professed 
his  desire  to  me)  we  can  but  bring  the  Lords 
down  into  our  house  among  us  again  all's 
done  !  No,  rather  all's  undone,  by  breaking  asun- 
der that  well-ordered  chain  of  government,  which 
from  the  chair  of  Jupiter  reacheth  down  by  seve- 
ral golden  even  links  to  the  protection  of  the  poor- 
est creature  that  now  lives  among  us." 

For  thus  vindicating  himself  and  publishing  his 
own  speeches  in  Parliament,  Sir  Edward  Dering 
was  expelled  the  House,  and  his  book  was  burnt 
by  the  common  hangman  ;  such  was  the  temper 
of  the  Puritans,  and  such  the  liberty  which  was 
enjoyed  under  their  dominion.  He  would  also 
have  been  committed  to  the  Tower,  if  he  had  not 
escaped  by  disguising  himself  in  the  habit  of  a 
Clergyman,  and  reading  prayers  in  a  church  in 
that  character.  After  a  while  he  joined  the  King, 
and  served  in  his  army,  till  either  because  he  had 
acquired  a  liking  for  the  clerical  functions  while 
he  had  performed  them,  or  that  the  calamitous 
state  of  the  nation,  which  had  wrecked  his  for- 
tune, had  affected  his  reason  also,  he  requested 
the  King  to  bestow  upon  him  the  Deanery  of 
Canterbury.    An  aberration  of  mind,  as  it  is  the 


LAUD. 


399 


most  charitable,  is  also  the  most  likely  solution 
of  his  conduct  ;  for  being  refused  the  preferment, 
which  with  such  glaring  inconsistency  he  solicited, 
he  deserted  the  royal  cause,  and  arriving  at  the 
outworks  of  the  metropolis,  under  a  false  name, 
presented  himself  before  the  Parliament,  as  the 
first  person  who  came  in  under  their  proclama- 
tion to  compound  for  his  delinquency.  They 
committed  him  for  the  present,  and  afterwards 
discharged  him  upon  a  disgraceful  petition,  where- 
by he  ruined  his  character  without  retrieving  his 
fortune.  For  though  he  was  allowed  to  compound, 
no  favour  was  shown  bun  ;  and  having  incurred 
the  contempt  of  all  parties,  and  the  condemnation 
of  his  own  heart,  he  ended  his  life  in  poverty  and 
disgrace. 

This  most  unhappy  man  would  have  gone  down 
to  the  grave  with  a  heavier  weight  of  misery  on 
his  head,  if  he  had  lived  to  see  the  fate  of  that 
"  tallest  cedar  on  the  Churches  Lebanon,"  against 
which  he  boasted  that  it  had  been  his  fortune  to 
strike  the  first  stroke.  The  attack  on  Laud  had 
no  sooner  been  commenced,  than  his  adversaries,  * 
in  whom  political  animosity  had  assumed  the 
odious  character  of  personal  hatred,  gave  free 
scope  to  their  malignity.  The  base  crew  of  libel- 
lers, by  whom  he  was  assailed  through  the  press, 
were  not  less  virulent  than  his  parliamentary  ene- 
mies.   Sir  Harbottle  Grimston  called  him  the  sty 


400 


LAUD. 


of  all  pestilential  filth  that  had  infested  the  state. 
...  the  corrupt  fountain  that  had  corrupted  all  the 
streams, .  . .  the  great  and  common  enemy  of  all 
goodness  and  good  men.  When  the  Primate  was 
taken  from  Lambeth,  in  custody  of  the  officer  of 
the  black  rod,  hundreds  of  the  poor  neighbours 
waited  at  the  gates  to  see  him  go,  praying  heartily 
for  his  safe  return  ;  a  gratifying  testimony  of  their 
grateful  affection,  for  which  he  blest  God  and 
them.  Tiie  articles  against  him  were  presented 
to  the  House  of  Lords  by  Pym,  Hambden,  and 
Maynard,  the  former  pronouncing  him  to  have 
been  "  the  highest,  the  boldest,  and  most  impu- 
dent oppressor  that  ever  was  an  oppressor  both 
of  King  and  people."  He  was  charged  with  en- 
deavouring to  introduce  into  the  kingdom  an  ar- 
bitrary and  tyrannical  government,  and  procuring 
divers  sermons  and  other  discourses  to  be  preach- 
ed and  published,  for  the  better  accomplishment 
of  this  traitorous  design.  "  Truly,"  said  Pym, 
"  a  prodigious  crime,  that  the  truth  of  God  and 
his  holy  Law  should  be  perverted,  to  defend  the 
lawlessness  of  men ;  that  the  holy  and  sacred 
function  of  the  ministry,  which  was  ordained  for 
instruction  of  men's  souls  in  the  ways  of  God, 
should  be  so  abused,  that  the  ministers  are  be- 
come the  trumpets  of  sedition,  the  promoters  and 
defenders  of  violence  and  oppression."  Pym  was 
no  fanatic :  his  mind  was  too  clear  and  logical  t« 


LAUD. 


401 


deceive  itself,  when  he  thus  charged  upon  Laud 
the  notorious  practices  of  his  own  party;  and  this 
sentence  was  uttered  in  the  temper  of  a  successful 
demagogue,  who  had  cast  off  shame  as  well  as. 
compunction,  to  qualify  himself  for  the  course 
which  he  was  determined  to  pursue. 

The  other  charges  were  for  perverting  and 
selling  justice,  and  taking  unlawful  gifts  and 
bribes ;  for  tratorously  causing  canons  to  be  com- 
posed and  published  without  lawful  authority,  and 
imposing  in  one  of  them  a  wicked  and  ungodly 
oath  upon  the  clergy ;  for  assuming  a  papal 
and  tyrannical  power,  endeavouring  to  subvert 
God's  true  religion,  set  up  popish  superstition 
and  idolatry  instead  thereof,  and  confederating 
with  popish  priests  and  Jesuits  to  reconcile  the 
Church  of  England  with  the  Church  of  Rome  ; 
causing  orthodox  ministers  to  be  suspended  and 
otherwise  grieved  without  just  cause  ;  traitorously 
endeavouring  to  cause  discord  between  the  Church 
of  England  and  other  reformed  Churches ;  to  stir 
up  war  with  Scotland,  and  by  false  and  malicious 
slanders  to  incense  his  Majesty  against  Parlia- 
ments. That  Laud  believed  the  authority  of  the 
King  to  be  absolute,  in  an  age  when  it  had  never 
been  defined,  is  certain;  and  that  he  had  borne 
an  active  part  in  the  measures  of  a  government, 
conducted  upon  arbitrary'  principles :  but  by  no 
principle  of  law  could  this  be  construed  into  trea- 
vol.  u.  26 


402 


LAUD. 


[chaf. 


son.  The  most  oppressive  acts  to  which  he  had 
ever  been  consenting  were  far  less  so  than  the 
manner  in  which  he  was  now  prosecuted ;  and  for 
the  other  accusations  against  him,  those  which 
were  not  frivolous  were  false,  and  must  have  been 
known  to  be  so  by  the  men  who  promoted  them. 
The  charges  which  the  Scotch  commissioners  pro- 
duced against  him  were  of  the  same  stamp,  pro- 
ving not  less  the  narrowness  of  mind,  than  the  ma- 
lice of  those  who  advanced  them ;  among  other 
things  they  accused  him  of  requiring  the  Scotch 
Bishops  to  be  present  at  divine  service  in  their 
whites,  of  calling  the  Covenant  ungodly,  of  railing 
against  their  general  assembly,  and  of  being  so  in- 
dustrious in  advancing  popery,  that  the  Pope  him- 
self could  not  have  been  more  popish,  had  he  been 
in  his  place. 

The  Archbishop  was  detained  ten  weeks  in 
charge  of  the  black  rod,  the  enormous  sum  of 
twenty  nobles  a  day  being  exacted  from  him  for 
diet  and  custody.  He  was  then  committed  to 
the  Tower.  The  removal  took  place  at  noon, 
that  being  thought  the  fittest  time  for  privateness 
when  the  citizens  were  at  dinner  ;  but  the  'pren- 
tices followed  him  with  clamours  and  revilings, 
"  even  beyond  barbarity  itself,"  till  he  entered 
the  tower-gate.  "I  bless  God  for  it,"  said  the 
object  of  this  vulgar  persecution ;  "  my  patience 
was  not  moved,  I  looked  upon  a  higher  cause 


XVII.  J 


LAUD. 


403 


than  the  tongues  of  Shimei  and  his  children." 
There  he  was  left  for  many  months,  to  the  great 
■weakening,  says  he,  "  of  my  aged  body  and  waste 
of  my  poor  fortune  ;  whereas  all  that  I  do  de- 
sire, is  a  just  and  fair  trial,  with  such  an  issue,  bet- 
ter or  worse,  as  it  shall  please  God  to  give." 
While  he  was  thus  confined,  the  great  oriental 
scholar  Pocock,  whom  he  had  employed  to  travel 
and  collect  manuscripts  in  the  East,  returned  to 
England,  and  with  a  becoming  sense  of  gratitude 
and  duty,  waited  upon  his  patron  in  prison.  He 
delivered  him  a  message  from  Hugo  Grotius,  him- 
self at  that  time  a  fugitive,  having  been  driven 
from  his  country  by  the  Calvinistic  party.  Gro- 
tius entreated  him  to  make  his  escape,  if  possible, 
and  cross  the  sea,  there  to  preserve  himself  for 
better  times,  or  at  least  to  obtain  security  from 
the  malice  of  his  enemies  and  the  rage  of  a  de- 
luded people.  The  lord-keeper,  and  one  of  the 
principal  secretaries,  had  already  taken  this 
course.  Laud,  however,  without  hesitation,  an- 
swered that  he  could  not  comply  with  his  friend's 
advice.  "  An  escape,"  said  he,  "  is  feasible 
enough  ;  yea,  'tis,  I  believe,  the  very  thing  my 
enemies  desire,  for  every  day  an  opportunity  for 
it  is  presented,  a  passage  being  left  free  in  all 
likelihood  for  this  purpose,  th%t  I  should  endea- 
vour to  take  the  advantage  of  it.  But  they  shall 
not  be  gratified  by  me.  I  am  almost  seventy 
26 


i 


404 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


years  old;  shall  1  now  go  about  to  prolong  a  mis- 
erable life  by  the  trouble  and  shame  of  flying  ? 
And  were  I  willing  to  go,  whither  should  I  fly  ? 
Should  I  go  into  France  or  any  other  popish  coun- 
try, it  would  give  some  seeming  grounds  to  that 
charge  of  popery,  which  they  have  endeavoured, 
with  so  much  industry  and  so  little  reason,  to  fasten 
upon  me.  But  if  I  should  get  into  Holland,  I 
should  expose  myself  to  the  insults  of  those  secta- 
ries there,  to  whom  my  character  is  odious,  and 
have  every  Anabaptist  come  and  pull  me  by  the 
beard.  No  ;  I  am  resolved  not  to  think  of  flight ; 
but  patiently  to  expect  and  bear  what  a  good  and 
wise  Providence  hath  provided  for  me,  of  what 
kind  soever  it  shall  be." 

Orders  were  given  that  he  should  not  be  per- 
mitted to  see  Strafford ;  and  this  order  was  en- 
forced, even  when  Strafford,  on  the  night  before 
his  execution,  requested  the  lieutenant  of  the 
Tower  that,  if  it  were  possible,  he  might  speak 
with  the  Archbishop,  saying,  You  shall  hear  what 
passeth  between  us,  for  it  is  not  a  time  now  either 
for  him  to  plot  heresy,  or  me  to  plot  treason.  The 
lieutenant  answered,  that  he  was  bound  by  his 
orders,  and  advised  him  to  petition  Parliament 
for  that  favour.  No,  replied  Strafford;  I  have 
gotten  my  despatch  from  them,  and  will  trouble 
them  no  more.  I  am  now  petitioning  a  higher 
sourt,  where  neither  partiality  can  be  expected 


XVH.] 


STRAFFORD. 


405 


nor  error  feared.  Then  turning  to  Usher,  the 
Primate  of  Ireland,  he  said,  "  My  Lord,  I  will 
tell  you  what  I  should  have  spoken  to  my  Lord's 
Grace  of  Canterbury.  You  shall  desire  the  Arch- 
bishop to  lend  me  his  prayers  this  night,  and  to 
give  me  his  blessing  when  I  do  go  abroad  to- 
morrow; and  to  be  in  his  window,  that  by  my 
last  farewell,  I  may  give  him  thanks  for  this  and 
all  his  other  former  favours."  When  Usher  de- 
livered this  mournful  message,  Laud  replied,  that 
in  conscience  he  was  bound  to  the  first,  and  in 
duty  and  obligation  to  the  second ;  but  he  feared 
weakness  and  passion  would  not  lend  him  eyes  to 
behold  his  last  departure.  "  The  next  morning," 
says  Laud,  "as  he  passed  by,  he  turned  towards 
me,  and  took  the  solemnest  leave  that  I  think 
was  ever,  by  any  at  distance,  taken  one  of  an- 
other." Solemn  indeed  it  was,  beyond  all  ex- 
ample; for  Strafford  halted  before  the  window, 
and  when  his  old  and  venerable  friend  came  to  it, 
bowed  himself  to  the  ground,  and  said,  My  Lord, 
your  prayers  and  your  blessing !  Laud  lifted  up 
his  hands  and  bestowed  both,  and  then,  overcome 
with  grief,  fell  to  the  ground  senseless ;  while 
Strafford,  bowing  himself  a  second  time,  said, 
Farewell,  my  Lord.  God  protect  your  innocency  ! 
When  the  Primate  recovered  his  senses,  he  said, 
as  if  fearing  that  what  had  passed  might  be 
deemed  an  unmanly   and  unbecoming  Aveakness. 


406 


LAUD. 


[CHAF. 


he  trusted,  by  God's  assistance,  that  when  he 
should  come  to  his  own  execution,  the  world 
would  perceive  he  had  been  more  sensible  of  Lord 
Strafford's  fate  than  of,  his  own. 

The  villainous  enemies  of  these  illustrious  men 
published,  among  other  falsehoods,  that  Strafford 
had  bitterly  cursed  the  Archbishop  at  his  death, 
as  one  whose  counsels  had  been  the  ruin  of  him 
and  his  house.  The  blood  of  one  victim  only 
made  them  more  greedy  for  that  of  the  other. 
Libels  and  doggrel  ballads  against  the  surviving 
object  of  their  hatred  were  hawked  and  sung 
through  the  streets,  and  caricatures  exhibited,  in 
which  he  was  represented  as  caged,  or  chained 
to  a  post ;  and  with  such  things,  the  rabble  made 
sport  at  taverns  and  alehouses,  being  as  drunk 
with  malice,  as  with  the  liquor  they  swilled  in. 
He  consoled  himself  with  thinking,  that  he  had 
fallen  but  into  the  same  case  as  David,  "  for  they 
that  sat  in  the  gate  spake  against  me,  and  I  was 
the  song  of  the  drunkards."  Much  more,  and 
with  much  greater  cause,  was  he  affected  by 
the  death  of  an  old  steward,  who  had  faithfully 
served  him  full  forty  and  two  years,  and  was 
now  become  almost  the  only  comfort  of  his  afflic- 
tion and  his  age.  His  jurisdiction  was  now  se- 
questered, with  all  his  rents  and  profits,  money 
was  even  taken  from  his  receiver,  (about  four- 
score pounds,)  for  the  maintenance,  it  was  pre- 


LAUD 


407 


tended,  of  the  King's  children:  "God,  of  his 
mercy,"  said  the  Primate,  "look  favourably  upon 
the  King,  and  bless  his  children  from  needing 
any  such  poor  maintenance  !"  After  a  severe  ill- 
ness, during  which  he  lost  the  use  of  his  limbs, 
when  for  the  first  time  he  was  able,  between  the 
help  of  his  man  and  his  staff",  to  go  to  the  Tower 
Church,  the  Puritan  who  preached  introduced 
so  much  personal  abuse  of  him  in  the  sermon,  in 
such  foul  terms,  and  with  such  palpable  viru- 
lence, that  women  and  boys  stood  up  in  the 
church  to  see  how  he  could  bear  it.  But  he 
thanked  God  for  his  patience,  and  prayed  for- 
giveness for  his  deluded  persecutors.  There  were 
some  who  wished  to  transport  him  to  New-Eng- 
land, that  the  sectarians  there  might  insult  over 
his  fall.  Hugh  Peters  was  a  principal  contriver  of 
this  scheme,  and  a  motion  to  that  elFect  was  made 
in  the  House  of  Commons,  but  rejected ;  for  the 
Parliament  had  determined,  as  in  the  case  of  Straf- 
ford, to  wrest  the  laws  to  their  purpose,  and  com- 
mit murder  with  all  the  abused  forms  and  solemni- 
ties of  justice. 

Prynne,  as  being  the  Archbishop's  implacable 
enemy,  and  therefore  one  whose  malice  might  be 
trusted,  was  sent  to  seize  his  papers  and  search 
his  person.  He  took  not  only  his  private  diary, 
but  also  his  book  of  private  devotions,  written 
with  his  own  hand  :  "  Nor  could  I,"  says  Laud, 


408 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


"get  him  to  leave  this  last,  but  he  must  needs 
see  what  past  between  God  and  me."  Prynne 
had  been  more  cruelly  treated  than  any  other 
person  by  the  Star  Chamber;  the  manner  in 
which  he  now  revenged  himself  has  fixed  an  in- 
delible stain  upon  his  character,  which,  other- 
wise, with  all  his  errors,  would  have  been  entitled 
to  respect.  When  he  took  away  the  papers, 
which  the  Archbishop  had  prepared  for  his  de- 
fence, and  all  the  other  writings  which  he  could 
find,  he  promised  that  they  should  be  restored 
in  three  or  four  days ;  instead  of  fulfilling  that 
promise,  he  restored  only  three  bundles  out  of 
twenty-one,  employed  against  him  at  his  trial 
such  as  might  seem  prejudicial  to  his  cause,  sup- 
prest  those  which  might  have  been  advantageous, 
published  many,  embezzled  some,  and  kept  the 
others  to  the  day  of  his  death.  More  villain- 
ously still,  when  he  published  Laud's  private 
diary,  he  omitted  those  passages  which  expressed 
his  conscientious  attachment  to  the  Church  of 
England,  a  villainy  which  would  never  have  been 
brought  to  light,  if  Archbishop  Sheldon  had  not 
obtained  an  order,  after  Prynne's  death,  for  the 
restoration  of  such  of  the  papers  as  could  be 
found  among  his  effects.  To  keep  up  the  popu- 
lar cry  against  their  victim,  it  was  proclaimed 
from  the  pulpit  that  Prynne  had  found  a  book 
in  his  pocket,  which  would  discover  great  things. 


xvji.] 


'  LAUD. 


409 


The  sole  indulgence  he  could  obtain  was,  that  he 
might  hare  copies  of  any  of  the  papers  which  had 
been  taken  from  him,  but  it  must  be  at  his  own 
cost;  this  when  his  estates  had  been  all  confiscated 
and  his  goods  sold,  before  he  was  ever  heard  in 
his  own  defence  ! 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  his  trial  had 
been  thus  long  delayed,  (for  he  had  been  more 
than  two  years  in  confinement,)  because  some  of 
the  party,  though  they  were  determined  upon  his 
ruin,  were  yet  unwilling  to  incur  the  guilt  and 
infamy  of  putting  him  to  death.  One  of  them 
said  it  would  be  happy  both  for  him  and  the  Par- 
liament, if  God  Avould  be  pleased  to  take  him  out 
of  the  way . . .  But  they  who  once  engage  in  ini- 
quitous designs  miserably  deceive  themselves, 
when  they  think  that  they  will  go  so  far,  and  no 
farther :  one  villainy  begets  another,  one  crime 
renders  another  necessary  ;  and  thus  they  are 
impelled  continually  downward  into  a  depth  of 
guilt,  which,  at  the  commencement  of  their 
career,  they  would  have  died  rather  than  have 
incurred.  One  of  these  persons,  (a  man  too  who 
was  bound  in  gratitude  to  Laud,)  in  answer  to  an 
observation,  that  the  Archbishop  was  a  good 
man,  replied,  "  Be  he  never  so  good,  we  must 
now  make  him  ill  for  our  own  sake?."  White- 
lock  was  named  upon  the  Committee  to  manage 
the  evidence  against  him ;  but  he  declined  acting. 


410 


LAUD.  ' 


saying,  that  the  Archhishop  had  taken  special 
care  of  his  breeding  at  St.  John's  College,  and  it 
would  be  disingenuous  and  ungrateful  to  be  per- 
sonally instrumental  in  taking  away  the  life  of 
his  benefactor.  The  task  of  providing  the  evi- 
dence was  intrusted  to  Prynne,  who  was  never 
weary  in  seeking  to  revenge  himself.  Nothing 
could  be  more  shameless  than  the  manner  in 
which  he  schooled  the  witnesses;  but  with  all 
their  tampering,  the  single  charge  against  the 
Archbishop  which  would  have  subjected  him  to 
legal  punishment,  that  of  perverting  and  selling 
justice,  was  found  so  utterly  unsupported,  even  by 
any  shadow  of  proof,  that  it  was  abandoned  upon 
the  trial. 

Well  knowing  to  what  outrages  and  insults  he 
should  be  exposed,  Laud  was  strongly  tempted 
to  make  no  defence,  but  throw  himself  upon 
God's  mercy,  rather  than  endure  them.  u  But," 
said  he,  "  when  I  considered  what  offence  I 
should  commit  therein  against  the  course  of  jus- 
tice, that  that  might  not  proceed  in  the  ordinary 
war  ;  what  offence  against  my  own  innocency 
and  my  good  name,  which  I  was  bound  both  in 
nature  and  conscience  to  maintain  by  all  good 
means  ;  but  especially  what  offence  against  God, 
as  if  he  were  not  able  to  protect  me,  or  not  will- 
ing, in  case  it  stood  with  my  eternal  happiness, 
and  his  blessed  will  of  trial  of  me  in  the  mean 


XVII.] 


LAUD. 


411 


time ;  when  I  considered  this,  I  humbly  besought 
God  for  strength  and  patience,  and  resolved  to 
undergo  all  scorn  and  whatsoever  else  might  hap- 
pen to  me,  rather  than  betray  my  innocency  to  the 
malice  of  any." 

Both  were  given  him,  to  the  comfort  and  ad- 
miration of  his  friends,  and  beyond  the  expecta- 
tion of  his  enemies.  Sergeant  Wilde  introduced 
the  case  by  a  virulent  speech,  in  which  he  af- 
firmed, that,  if  all  former  oppressions,  pernicious 
practices,  and  machinations,  which  had  been 
employed  to  ruinate  our  religion,  laws,  and  liber- 
ties, were  lost,  they  might  here  have  been  found, 
and  drawn  out  again  to  the  life  :  that  it  was  a 
charge  of  treason  in  all  and  every  part,  treason 
in  the  highest  pitch  and  altitude.  After  the  fiery 
persecutions  of  Queen  Mary's  days,  the  massa- 
cres in  France,  the  treasons  against  Queen  Eli- 
zabeth, and  the  Gunpowder  Plot,  for  any  man 
now  to  go  about  to  rebuild  those  walls  of  Jericho, 
and  reduce  us  to  those  rotten  principles  of  error 
and  darkness,  what  could  be  expected,  but  that 
the  people  should  be  ready  to  stone  him  ?  He 
had  exposed  and  prostituted  the  sabbath  to  all 
looseness  and  irreligion,  and  that  by  a  law ;  he 
had  made  a  ladder  for  himself  to  climb  up  to 
papal  dignity  ;  and  it  appeared  by  his  own  diary, 
that  a  Cardinal's  cap  had  been  offered  him  ;  but 
such  was  his  modesty    to   forbear   it.  because 


412 


LAUD. 


though  Rome  be  a  true  visible  Church,  in  his 
opinion,  yet  something  dwelt  with  him  that  hin 
dered  it  for  a  time,  to  wit,  said  this  wicked  ad- 
vocate, I  suppose,  his  dwelling  here,  till  this  his 
leprosy  had  so  infected  all,  that  there  remained 
no  other  cure  but  the  sword  of  justice. 

Troubled  as  Laud  was  at  hearing  himself  thus 
vilified,  he  collected  himself,  and  requested  of  the 
Lords,  that  they  would  expect  proof  before  they 
gave  belief  to  these  loud  but  loose  assertions. 
Innocent  as  he  was,  and  being  what  he  was,  for 
him  to  plead  for  life  at  that  bar,  was  worse  than 
losing  it :  "  As  for  the  sentence,"  said  he,  "  (I 
thank  God  for  it,)  I  am  at  St.  Paul's  ward  :  '  if  I 
have  committed  any  thing  worthy  of  death,  I  re- 
fuse not  to  die,'  for,  I  bless  God,  I  have  so  spent 
my  time,  as  that  I  am  neither  ashamed  to  live, 
nor  afraid  to  die  ;  nor  can  the  world  be  more 
■weary  of  me  than  I  of  it :  for  seeing  the  ma- 
lignity which  hath  been  raised  against  me,  I  have 
carried  my  life  in  my  hands  these  divers  years 
past."  With  regard  to  the  charge  of  seeking  to 
overthrow  the  laws,  he  said,  his  soul  had  always 
hated  an  arbitrary  government,  and  that  he  had 
ever  believed  and  preached  that  human  laws  bind 
the  conscience,  and  had  himself  made  conscience 
of  observing  them  ;  :-  As  for  religion,"  he  conti- 
nued, "  1  was  born  and  bred  up  in  and  under  the 
Church  of  England,  as  it  yet  stands  established 


xvn.J 


LAUD. 


413 


by  law  :  I  have,  by  God's  blessing  and  the  favour 
of  my  Prince,  grown  up  in  it  to  the  years  which 
are  now  upon  me,  and  to  the  place  of  preferment 
which  I  yet  bear ;  and  in  this  Church,  by  the 
grace  and  goodness  of  God,  I  resolve  to  die.  I 
have,  ever  since  I  understood  aught  in  divinity, 
kept  one  constant  tenour  in  this  my  profession, 
without  variation,  or  shifting  from  one  opinion 
to  another  for  any  worldly  ends;  and  ii  my  con- 
science would  have  suffered  me  to  shift  tenets  or 
religion  with  time  and  occasion,  I  could  easily 
have  slid  through  all  the  difficulties  which  have 
prest  upon  me  in  this  kind.  But  of  all  diseases, 
I  have  ever  hated  a  palsy  in  religion  ;  well  know- 
ing, that  too  often  a  dead-palsy  ends  that  disease 
in  the  fearful  forgetfulness  of  God  and  his  judge- 
ments. Ever  since  I  came  in  place,  I  laboured 
nothing  more,  than  that  the  external  public 
worship  of  God  (too  much  slighted  in  most  parts 
of  this  kingdom)  might  be  preserved,  and  that 
with  as  much  decency  and  uniformity  as  might 
be  ;  being  still  of  opinion,  that  unity  cannot  long 
continue  in  the  Church  where  uniformity  is  shut 
out  at  the  church-door.  And  I  evidently  saw, 
that  the  public  neglect  of  God's  service  on  the 
outward  face  of  it,  and  the  nasty  lying  of  many 
places  dedicated  to  that  service,  had  almost  cast 
a  damp  upon  the  true  and  inward  worship  of  God, 
which,  while  we  live  in  the  body,  needs  external 


414 


LAUD. 


helps,  and  all  little  enough  to  keep  it  in  any 
vigour.  And  this  I  did  to  the  uttermost  of  my 
knowledge,  according  both  to  law  and  canon,  and 
with  the  consent  and  liking  of  the  people;  nor  did 
any  command  issue  out  from  me  against  the  one, 
or  without  the  other,  that  I  know  of. 

"  'Tis  charged  that  I  have  endeavoured  to 
bring  in  Popery.  Perhaps,  my  Lords,  I  am  not 
ignorant  what  party  of  men  have  raised  this 
scandal  upon  me.  nor  for  what  end  ;  nor.  perhaps, 
by  whom  set  on  :  but  I  would  fain  have  a  good 
reason  given  me,  if  my  conscience  lead  me  that 
way,  and  that  with  my  conscience  I  could  sub- 
scribe to  the  Church  of  Rome,  what  should  have 
kept  me  here,  before  my  imprisonment,  to  en- 
dure the  libels,  and  the  slanders,  and  the  base 
usage  of  all  kinds  which  have  been  put  upon  me, 
and  these  to  end  in  this  question  for  my  life  ?. . .  Is 
it  because  of  any  pledges  I  have  in  the  world  to 
sway  against  my  conscience  ?  No,  sure !  For  I 
have  no  wife  nor  children  to  cry  out  upon  me  to 
stay  with  them  ;  and  if  I  had,  I  hope  the  call  of 
my  conscience  should  be  heard  above  them.  Is 
it  because  I  was  loth  to  leave  the  honour  and  the 
profit  of  the  place  I  was  risen  unto?  I  desire 
your  Lordships  and  all  the  world  should  know,  I 
do  much  scorn  honour  and  profit,  both  the  one 
and  the  other,  in  comparison  of  my  conscience ; 
besides,  it  cannot  be  imagined  by  any  reasonable 


XV1I.J 


LAUD. 


415 


man,  but  that  if  I  could  have  complied  with 
Rome,  1  should  not  have  wanted  either.  Is  it 
because  I  lived  here  at  ease,  and  was  loth  to  ven- 
ture the  loss  of  that?  Not  so  neither;  for  what- 
soever the  world  may  be  pleased  to  think,  I  have 
led  a  very  painful  life,  and  such  as  I  could  have 
been  very  well  content  to  change,  had,  I  well 
known  how.  Let  nothing  be  spoken  against  me 
but  truth,  and  1  do  here  challenge  whatsoever  is 
between  Heaven  and  Hell  to  say  three  words 
against  me  in  point  of  my  religion ;  in  which,  by 
God  grace,  I  have  ever  hated  dissimulation:  and 
had  I  not  hated  it,  perhaps  it  might  have  been 
better  with  me  for  worldly  safety  than  now  it  is. 
But  it  can  no  way  become  a  Christian  Bishop  to 
halt  with  God." 

He  then  stated  what  persons  he  had,  by  his  in- 
dividual exertions,  preserved  or  reclaimed  from 
popery.  Buckingham  was  one,  Chillingworth 
another.  When  the  business  of  the  day  was 
over,  Hugh  Peters  followed  him  out  of  the 
house  and  abused  him,  till  the  Earl  of  Essex  ac- 
cidentally came  up,  and,  with  an  honourable  feel- 
ing, delivered  him  from  the  insults  of  this  brutal 
fanatic.  In  no  case  where  the  appearance  of  law 
was  thought  necessary  for  destroying  an  obnoxi- 
ous individual,  has  the  determination  to  destroy 
him  ever  been  more  decidedly  manifested  through- 
out  the   whole    proceedings.      The  weightiest 


41fi 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


proofs  which  could  be  adduced  of  his  traitorous 
endeavours  to  introduce  a  tyrannical  government 
were  a  passage  in  his  diary,  and  a  few  words 
which  he  was  accused  of  having  spoken  at  the 
council  table.    He  had  entered  in  his  diary,  that, 
upon  the  Scotch  rebellion,  Strafford  and  Hamil- 
ton, and. 'he  himself,  proposed  a  parliament,  and 
these  words  followed,  "  a  resolution  voted  at  the 
board  to  assist  the  King  in  extraordinary  ways, 
if  the  Parliament  should  prove  peevish  and  re- 
fuse," &c.    There  was  no  proof  that  he  had  ad- 
vised that  vote,  and  he  demanded   "  whether, 
though  the  epithet  peevish  were  a  very  peevish 
word,  he  might  not  write  it  in  his  private  notes 
without  treason?"    The  other  charge  was,  that, 
after  the  dissolution  of  the  last  parliament,  he  had 
said  to  the  King,  now  he  might  use  his  own 
power.    This  was  attested  by  Sir  Henry  Vane 
the  elder,  whose  hands  were  so  ingrained  with 
the  blood  of  Strafford,  that  no  second  act  of  the 
same  kind  could  fix  a  stain  upon  them.  The 
Archbishop  denied  the  words,  either  in  terms  or 
in  sense,  to  the  uttermost  of  his  knowledge;  and 
if  he  had  spoken  them,  either,  he  said,  they  were 
ill-advised,  but  no  treason;  or  treasonable,  and 
then  he  ought,  by  law,  to  have  been  tried  for 
them  within  six  months.    And,  moreover,  they 
were  charged  upon  him    by  a   single  witness. 
"  Strange,"  said  he.  "  it  is  to  me,  that  at  such  a 


LAUD. 


417 


full  table,  no  person  of  honour  should  remember 
such  a  speech  but  Sir  Henry  Vane.  He  is  a  man 
of  some  years,  and  memory  is  one  of  the  first 
powers  of  man  on  which  age  works ;  and  yet 
his  memory  so  good,  so  fresh,  that  he  alone  can 
remember  words  spoken  at  a  full  council  table, 
which  no  person  of  honour  remembers  but  him- 
self. But  I  would  not  have  him  brag  of  it ;  for  I 
have  read  in  St.  Augustin,  that  quidam  pessimi, 
some,  even  the  worst  of  men,  have  great  memo- 
ries, and  are  tanto  pejores,  so  much  the  worse  for 
them.    God  bless  Sir  Henry  !" 

These  charges,  utterly  untenable  as  they  were 
upon  any  principle  of  law,  were  the  weightiest 
which  could  be  brought  against  him.  The  others 
proved  only,  in  many  instances,  the  falsehood  of 
the  witnesses,  and  in  all,  the  malice  of  the  prose- 
cutors. It  was  made  a  charge  of  treason  against 
him,  that  when,  in  the  progress  of  repairing  St. 
Paul's,  it  was  necessary  to  demolish  some  of  the 
houses  which  had  been  built  upon  it,  a  commit- 
tee had  been  appointed  with  power  to  compound 
with  the  tenants,  or  pull  the  houses  down  if  they 
would  not  compound :  that  the  goldsmiths  had 
been  forbidden  to  keep  their  shops  any  where 
but  in  Cheapside  and  Lombard  Street :  and  that, 
as  appeared  by  his  diary,  he  meant  to  support 
the  London  clergy  in  their  claim  of  tithes.  The 

vol.  ii.  27 


418 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


sentences  of  Prynne  and  the  other  libellers  were 
brought  forward  as  treasonable  acts  in  him;  the 
censures  past  for  nonconformity  and  every  petty 
case  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  which  could  be 
made  to  appear  as  a  grievance ;  the  prolongation 
of  the  convocation  ;  the  canons  ;  the  language  in 
which  the  University  had  addressed  him;  his 
having  mended  the  painted  window  at  Lambeth, 
the  pictures  in  his  gallery,  the  missals  in  his 
study.  "  True,  my  Lords,"  replied  the  indig- 
nant Prelate ;  "  I  had  many,  but  I  had  more  of 
the  Greek  liturgies  than  the  Roman  :  and  I  had 
as  many  of  both  as  I  could  get.  And  I  would 
fain  know  how  we  should  answer  their  errors  if 
we  may  not  have  their  books?  I  had  liturgies, 
all  I  could  get,  both  ancient  and  modern.  I  had 
also  the  Alcoran  in  divers  copies ;  if  this  be  an 
argument,  why  do  they  not  accuse  me  to  be  a 
Turk 

The  trial,  if  so  it  may  be  called,  lasted  twenty 
days,  during  which  Laud  displayed  a  courage  an- 
swerable to  his  cause  and  character,  and  a  promp- 
titude not  to  have  been  expected  at  his  years. 
With  such  a  brave  innocence  did  he  defend  him- 
self, and  so  utterly  demolish  the  evidence  against 
him,  in  spite  of  all  the  care  with  which  it  had 
been  concerted,  that  possessed  as  the  citizens 
were  with  the  spirit  of  sectarian  rancour,  some 


xvn.J  LAUD.  419 

of  them  admitted  he  had  answered  many  things 
very  well,  yet,  they  added,  he  must  suffer  some- 
what for  the  honour  of  the  House.  On  the  day 
appointed  for  his  defence,  Prynne  published  his 
diary,  garbled  in  some  parts,  and  interpolated  in 
others,  artfully  and  wickedly ;  and  when  the 
Archbishop  came  to  the  bar,  he  saw  that  the 
book  had  been  presented  to  every  one  of  the 
Lords  who  were  to  pronounce  sentence  on  him. 
A  little  while  the  sight  troubled  him,  as  it  was 
designed  to  do,  but  comforting  himself  with  that 
trust  in  God,  which  never  for  a  moment  forsook 
him  through  all  his  long  affliction,  he  entered  upon 
his  defence,  and  entreated  the  House  to  bear  in 
mind  that  he  had  been  sifted  to  the  very  bran, .  .  . 
"my  diary,"  said  he,  "nay,  my  very  prayer-book 
taken  from  me,  and  used  against  me,  and  that  in 
some  cases  not  to  prove,  but  to  make,  a  charge. 
Yet  I  am  thus  far  glad  even  for  this;  for  by  my 
diary  your  Lordships  have  seen  the  passages  of 
my  life  ;  and  by  my  prayer-book  the  greatest  se- 
crets between  God  and  my  soul;  so  that  you 
have  me  at  the  very  bottom :  yet,  blessed  be 
God,  no  disloyalty  is  found  in  the  one,  no  popery 
in  the  other."  Then  briefly,  but  forcibly,  going 
over  the  charges  and  the  evidence  against  him, 
he  answered  the  assertion  of  the  prosecutors,  that 
though  none  of  these  actions  were  urged  against 
him  as  treason,  yet  the  result  of  all  amounted  to 


420 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


it.*  "  I  must  be  bold  to  tell  your  Lordships," 
said  he,  "  that  if  no  particular  which  is  charged 
upon  me  be  treason,  the  result  from  them  cannot ; 
for  the  result  must  be  of  the  same  nature  and 
species  with  the  particulars  from  which  it  rises, 
and  this  holds  in  nature,  in  morality,  and  in  law. 
So  this  imaginary  result  is  a  monster  in  nature, 
in  morality,  and  in  law;  and  if  it  be  nourished 
will  devour  all  the  safety  of  the  subject  of  Eng- 
land, which  now  stands  so  well  fenced  by  the 
known  law  of  the  land.  And,  therefore,  I  humbly 
desire  your  Lordships,  not  for  mine,  but  for  the 
public's  sake,  to  weigh  this  business  well  before 
this  gap  be  made  so  wide,  as  there  will  hardly 
be  power  left  again  to  shut  it." 

So  admirably  did  he  vindicate  himself  upon 
the  matters  of  fact,  and  so  ably  were  the  points 
of  law  argued  for  him  by  his  counsel,  Hearne 
and  Hale,  (afterward  Sir  Matthew,)  that  it  was 
found  impossible,  even  by  the  handful  of  Peers 
who  sat  in  judgement  on  him,  obsequious  as  they 
were   to   a  tyrannical  House  of  Commons,  and 

*  When  after  this  he  was  heard  by  his  counsel,  Serjeant 
Wilde,  on  behalf  of  the  Commons,  repeated  that  though  it  was 
not  alleged  that  any  one  of  his  crimes  amounted  to  a  treason 
or  felony,  yet  all  his  misdemeanors  put  together  did,  by  way 
of  accumulation,  make  many  grand  treasons.  To  which  the 
Archbishop's  advffcate  replied,  "  1  crave  your  mercy,  good 
Mr.  Serjeant,  I  never  understood  before  this  time,  that  two 
hundred  couple  of  black  rabbits  would  make  a  black  horse." 


XVII.] 


LAUD. 


421 


deep  as  they  were  in  infamy,  to  pronounce  him 
guilty.  But  the  dominant  faction  resolved,  as  in 
Strafford's  case,  that  when  law  could  not  be 
stretched  to  their  purpose,  their  own  authority 
should  stand  in  its  place  ;  and  they  brought  in  a 
Bill  of  Attainder,  which  was  supported  less 
strongly  by  argument  than  by  a  mob  of  peti- 
tioners calling  out  for  his  blood :  the  people  were 
actually  exhorted  to  set  their  hands  to  this  peti- 
tion in  the  churches ;  and  the  civil  authorities 
made  no  attempt  to  check  a  proceeding  as  illegal 
as  it  was  scandalous  and  inhuman.  Laud  was 
admitted  to  speak  in  his  own  behalf.  The  sub- 
stance of  the  proceedings  in  the  Upper  House 
having  been  recapitulated  against  him  by  Mr. 
Brown,  the  clerk  of  that  House,  with  less  aspe- 
rity than  the  other  prosecutors  had  used,  the 
Archbishop  thanked  him  for  his  humanity.  "  This 
worthy  gentleman,"  said  he,  "  hath  pressed  all 
things  as  hardly  against  me  as  the  cause  can  any 
way  bear ;  that  was  his  duty  to  this  honourable 
House,  and  it  troubles  me  not.  But  his  carriage 
and  expressions  were  civil  towards  me  in  this  my 
great  affliction  ;  and  for  this  1  render  him  humble 
and  hearty  thanks,  having  from  other  hands 
pledged  my  Saviour  in  gall  and  vinegar,  and 
drunk  up  the  cup  of  the  scornings  of  the  people 
to  the  very  bottom.  I  shall  follow  every  thing 
in  the  same  order  he  proceeded  in:  so  far  forth 


1-22 


LAUD. 


[chap 


at  least  as  an  old  slow  hand  could  take  them,  a 
heavy  heart  observe  them,  and  an  old  decayed 
memory  retain  them."  He  did  this  with  clear- 
ness and  precision ;  and  reminded  the  Commons 
that  the  evidence,  as  it  was  laid  before  them,  was 
but  upon  the  collection  and  judgement  of  one 
man,  whose  opinion  might  differ  much  from  that 
of  the  judges  themselves,  and  who  having  been 
absent  on  some  of  the  days,  could,  of  course,  in 
that  part  of  the  proceedings,  report  only  what 
others  had  reported  to  him,  what  came  from  him 
being,  at  best,  a  report  of  evidence,  and  not  upon 
oath.  No  person  had  ever  given  a  verdict  upon 
such  grounds ;  and  it  was  for  that  House,  as  the 
great  preserver  of  the  laws  and  liberties  of  the 
subject,  to  consider  how  far  it  might  trench  upon 
these,  in  future  consequences,  if  these  great 
boundaries  were  laid  loose  and  open.  He  desired 
that  they  would  take  into  consideration  his  call- 
ing, his  age,  his  former  life,  his  fall,  his  long  and 
strict  imprisonment.  "  In  my  prosperity,  (said 
the  venerable  sufferer,)  I  bless  God  for  it,  I  was 
never  puffed  up  into  vanity,  whatever  the  world 
may  think  of  me.  And  in  these  last  full  four 
years'  durance,  I  thank  the  same  God,  gravemfor- 
tunam  constanter  tuli,  I  have  with  decent  constancy 
borne  the  weight  of  a  pressing  fortune  :  and  I 
hope  God  will  strengthen  me  unto,  and  in,  the 
end  of  it.     Mr.  Speaker,  (he  continued.)  I  am 


XVII.] 


LAUD. 


423 


very  aged,  considering  the  turmoils  of  my  life,  and 
I  daily  find  in  myself  more  decays  than  I  make 
show  of ;  and  the  period  of  my  life,  in  the  course 
of  nature,  cannot  be  far  off.  It  cannot  but  be  a 
great  grief  unto  me  to  stand  at  these  years  thus 
charged  before  ye.  Yet  give  me  leave  to  say 
thus  much  without  offence  ;  whatsoever  errors  or 
faults  I  may  have  committed  by  the  way,  in  any 
my  proceeding  ,  through  human  infirmity,  (as  who 
is  he  that  hath  not  offended,  and  broken  some 
statute-laws  too,  by  ignorance,  or  misapprehension, 
or  forgetfulness,  at  some  sudden  time  of  action?) 
yet,  if  God  bless  me  with  so  much  memory,  I  will 
die  with  these  words  in  my  mouth,  that  I  never 
intended,  much  less  endeavoured,  the  subversion 
of  the  laws  of  the  kingdom ;  nor  the  bringing 
in  of  Popish  superstition  upon  the  true  Pro- 
testant religion,  established  by  law  in  this  king- 
dom." 

The  strength  with  which  he  defended  himself 
was  felt  and  acknowledged  even  by  many  of  the 
members ;  but  truth  and  eloquence  were  as  little 
regarded  in  those  calamitous  days  as  law,  justice 
and  humanity,  and,  without  hearing  counsel  in 
his  behalf,  the  Commons  voted  him  guilty  of 
high  treason.  There  was  yet  honour  enough 
among  the  few  Lords  who  adhered  to  the  parlia- 
ment through  all  its  courses,  to  hesitate  at  pass- 
ing a  bill  so  flagrantly  iniquitous;  but  the  Earl 


424 


LAUD. 


[chap 


of  Pembroke,  one  of  the  meanest  wretches  that 
ever  brought  infamy  upon  an  old  and  honourable 
name  for  the  sake  of  currying  favour  with  a 
ruling  faction,  called  the  Primate  rascal  and  vil- 
lain, and  told  the  Lords  that  if  they  demurred, 
the  citizens  would  come  down  and  call  for  justice, 
as  they  had  done  in  Strafford's  case.  Mr.  Stroud 
also,  who  came  up  with  a  message  from  the  Com- 
mons to  quicken  the  Upper  House,  let  fall  the 
same  threat.  And  when  they  voted  that  all 
papers  relating  to  the  trial  should  be  laid  before 
them,  the  Commons,  to  intimidate  them,  pre- 
pared an  ordinance  to  displace  them  from  all 
command  in  the  army,  and  by  their  old  agents 
procured  a  petition  to  be  got  up  for  the  punish- 
ment of  delinquents,  and  for  bringing  the  Lords 
to  vote  and  sit  with  the  Commons,  to  the  end 
that  public  business  might  be  more  quickly  de- 
spatched. At  length,  when  only  fourteen  Lords 
were  present,  they  voted  him  guilty  of  endea- 
vouring to  subvert  the  laws  and  the  protestant 
religion,  and  of  being  an  enemy  to  Parliaments ; 
but  left  it  for  the  judges  to  pronounce  whether 
this  were  treason  ;  and  the  judges,  to  their  lasting 
honour,  unanimously  declared  that  nothing  which 
was  charged  against  the  Archbishop  was  treason, 
by  any  known  and  established  law  of  the  land. 
In  the  face  of  this  determination,  the  Commons 
persisted  in  their  murderous  purpose  ;  the  Peers. 


XVII.] 


LAUD. 


425 


who  shrunk,  from  a  more  active  participation  in  the 
crime,  shrunk  from  their  duty  also,  absenting  them- 
selves from  the  House,  and  six  were  found  tho- 
rough-paced enough  to  concur  in  the  sentence  of 
condemnation. 

Such  an  issue  had  been  foreseen,  and  a  pardon 
under  the  Great  Seal  had  been  secretly  conveyed 
to  him  from  the  King,  which,  if  his  persecu- 
tors proceeded  with  any  regard  to  law,  they 
must  needs  allow  ;  and  if  it  failed,  as  there  was 
too  much  reason  to  apprehend,  it  would  at  least 
manifest  the  King's  justice  and  affection  to  an 
old  faithful  servant,  whom  he  so  much  esteemed. 
This  pardon  he  produced,  when  he  was  called 
upon  to  say  why  sentence  of  death  should  not  be 
past  upon  him.  It  was  read  in  both  Houses,  but 
as  he  expected,  they,  in  their  usurped  and  tyran- 
nical authority,  affirmed  that  the  King  could  not 
pardon  a  judgement  of  Parliament.  Being  thus 
assured  of  death,  "  he  neither  entertained  his 
sentence  with  a  stoical  apathy,  nor  wailed  his 
fate  with  weak  and  womanish  lamentations,  (to 
which  extremes  most  men  are  carried  in  this 
case,)  but  heard  it  with  so  even  and  so  smooth 
a  temper,  as  showed  he  neither  was  ashamed  to 
live,  nor  afraid  to  die."  Up  to  that  point  he  had 
composed  the  history  of  his  troubles  and  trial, 
that  when  justice  one  day  should  be  rendered 
to  his  memory,  nothing  might  be  wanting  to  his 


426 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


full  and  complete  vindication.  That  task  he 
now  broke  off,  and  prepared  for  death.  He  peti- 
tioned his  iniquitous  judges  for  two  favours  ;  the 
one,  that  three  of  his  Chaplains  might  be  with 
him  before  and  at  his  death ;  the  other,  that  he 
might  be  beheaded,  and  not  undergo  the  igno- 
minious and  barbarous  sentence  for  treason  in 
its  full  rigour.  The  Commons,  with  a  brutality 
worthy  of  their  whole  proceedings  in  this  case, 
denied  both;  they  only  allowed  that  one  of  the 
Chaplains  whom  he  named  might  attend,  with 
two  of  their  own  divines,  appointing  two  of  the 
most  notorious  incendiaries  . .  .  The  Sheriffs  at- 
tended in  person,  to  know  the  manner  of  his 
execution,  (as  if  even  the  Sheriffs  felt  some 
shame,  if  not  some  compunction,  at  bearing  a 
part  in  this  flagrant  inhumanity,)  and  for  an  an- 
swer they  were  referred  to  the  warrant,  that 
he  should  be  hanged,  drawn  and  quartered.  He 
petitioned  the  Lords  a  second  time  upon  this 
point,  on  the  grounds  of  his  profession,  his  rank, 
and  the  dignity  which  he  had  held,  as  having  sat 
in  their  House,  and  been  of  the  King's  Privy 
Council.  The  Lords  sent  it  to  the  Lower  House, 
signifying  that  for  these  reasons  they  had  as- 
sented to  it;  and  the  Commons  were  then  plea- 
sed to  consent  that  he  should  only  be  beheaded, 
but  this  was  not  conceded  by  them  till  after  some 
debate. 


XVIJ.J 


LAUD. 


427 


The  night  before  his  execution,  he  ate  a  mo- 
derate supper,  to  refresh  his  spirits,  and  then 
going  to  bed  slept  soundly  till  the  hour  when  his 
attendants  were  appointed  to  await  his  rising. 
When  he  was  brought  out  of  the  Tower,  the 
spectators  "  were  so  divided  betwixt  bemoaners 
and  insulters,  it  was  hard  to  decide  which  of 
them  made  up  the  most  part."  He  proceeded 
with  a  cheerful  countenance  and  an  unruffled 
mind,  though  Hugh  Peters,  and  Sir  John  Clot- 
worthy,  (a  man  worthy  of  such  an  associate,) 
were  all  the  way  assailing  him  with  inhuman  in- 
terrogatories. These  he  took  calmly,  and  "  though 
some  rude  and  uncivil  people  reviled  him  as  he 
past  along  with  opprobrious  language,  as  loth  to 
let  him  go  to  the  grave  in  peace,  yet  it  never  dis- 
composed his  thoughts,  nor  disturbed  his  patience. 
For  he  had  profited  so  well  in  the  school  of  Christ, 
that  when  he  was  reviled  he  reviled  not  again, 
but  committed  his  cause  to  him  that  judgeth  right- 
eously. And  as  he  did  not  fear  the  frowns,  so 
neither  did  he  court  the  applause,  of  the  vulgar 
herd,  and  therefore  chose  to  read  what  he  had 
to  speak  unto  the  people,  rather  than  to  affect 
the  ostentation  either  of  memory  or  wit  in  that 
dreadful  agony." 

"Good  people,"  said  he,  "  this  is  an  uncom- 
fortable time  to  preach,  yet  I  shall  begin  with  a 
text  of  scripture  (Hebrews,  xii.  2.) — Let  us  run 


428 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


with,  vat* nice  the  race  which  is  set  before  us,  looking 
unto  Jesus  the  author  and  finisher  of  our  faith,  who, 
for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  him,  endured  the 
cross,  despising  the  shame,  and  is  set  down  at  the 
right  hand  of  the  throne  of  God. 

"  I  have  been  long  in  my  race,  and  how  I 
ha  ye  looked  to  Jesus,  the  author  and  finisher  of 
my  faith,  He  best  knows.  I  am  now  come  to 
the  end,  and  here  I  find  the  cross,  a  death  of 
shame  ;  but  the  shame  must  be  despised  ...  or  no 
coming  to  the  right  hand  of  God  !  I  am  going 
apace,  as  you  see,  toward  the  Red  Sea,  and  my 
feet  are  now  upon  the  very  brink  of  it;  an  argu- 
ment, I  hope,  that  God  is  bringing  me  into  the 
land  of  promise  ;  for  that  was  the  way  through 
which  he  led  his  people  . . .  But  before  they  came 
to  it  he  instituted  a  passover  with  them,...  a 
lamb  it  was,  but  it  must  be  eaten  with  sour  herbs. 
I  shall  obey,  and  labour  to  digest  the  sour  herbs 
as  well  as  the  lamb.  And  I  shall  remember  it 
is  the  Lord's  Passover;  I  shall  not  think  of  the 
herbs,  nor  be  angry  with  the  hand  that  gathereth 
them,  but  look  up  only  unto  Him  who  instituted 
that,  and  governs  these.  For  men  can  have  no 
more  power  over  me,  than  what  is  given  them  from 
above.  I  am  not  in  love  with  this  passage 
through  the  Red  Sea,  for  I  have  the  weakness 
and  infirmities  of  flesh  and  blood  plentifully  in 
me,  and  I  have  prayed  with  my  Saviour  ut  tran- 


LAUD. 


429 


siret  calix  istc,  that  this  cup  of  Red  Wine  might 
pass  from  me.  But  if  not, . . .  God's  will,  not  man's, 
be  done  !  And  I  shall  most  willingly  drink  of  this 
cup,  as  deep  as  he  pleases,  and  enter  into  this  sea, 
yea  and  pass  through  it,  in  the  way  that  he  shall 
lead  me." 

Thus  he  be?r\n  his  dying  address,  in  that  state 
of  calm,  but  deepest,  feeling,  when  the  mind 
seeks  for  fancies  and  types  and  dim  similitudes, 
and  extracts  from  them  consolation  and  strength. 
What  he  said  was  delivered  with  a  grave  com- 
posure, so  that  "  he  appeared,"  says  Sir  Philip 
Warwick,  "  to  make  his  own  funeral  sermon 
with  less  passion,  than  he  had  in  former  times 
made  the  like  for  a  friend."  The  hope  which 
he  had  expressed  at  his  last  awful  parting  with 
Strafford  was  now  nobly  justified;  it  was  not 
possible  for  man,  in  those  fearful  circumstances, 
to  have  given  proof  of  a  serener  courage,  or  of  a 
more  constant  and  well-founded  faith.  Nor  did 
he  let  pass  the  opportunity  of  giving  the  people 
such  admonition  as  the  time  permitted.  "I 
know,"  said  he,  "  my  God  whom  I  serve  is  as 
able  to  deliver  me  from  this  Sea  of  Blood,  as  he 
was  to  deliver  the  Three  Children  from  the  fur- 
nace ;  and  (I  humbly  thank  my  Saviour  for  it !) 
my  resolution  is  now  as  their's  was  then  :  they 
would  not  worship  the  image  the  king  had  set  up, 
nor  will  I  the  imaginations  which  the  people  arp 


430 


LAUD. 


setting  up :  nor  will  I  forsake  the  temple  and  the 
truth  of  God,  to  follow  the  bleating  of  Jeroboam's 
calves  in  Dan  and  Bethel.  And  as  for  this 
people,  they  are  at  this  day  miserably  misled, 
(God  of  his  mercy  open  their  eyes,  that  they  may 
see  the  right  way!)  for  the  blind  lead  the  blind, 
and  if  they  go  on,  both  will  certainly  fall  into  the 
ditch." 

He  then  spake  of  his  innocence  and  the  unpre- 
cedented manner  of  his  condemnation.  "  You 
know,"  said  he,  "  what  the  Pharisees  said 
against  Christ  himself;  '  If  ice  let  him  alone,  all 
men  will  believe  in  him,  et  vcnient  Romani,  and 
the  Romans  will  come,  and  take  away  both  our 
place  and  nation.'  See  how  just  the  judgement 
was!  They  crucified  Christ  for  fear,  lest  the 
Romans  should  come ;  and  his  death  was  it 
which  brought  in  the  Romans  upon  them ;  God 
punishing  them  with  that  which  they  most  feared. 
And  I  pray  God  this  clamour  of  vcnient  Romani, 
of  which  I  have  given  no  cause,  help  not  to  bring 
them  in  !  For  the  Pope  never  had  such  an  har- 
vest in  England  since  the  Reformation,  as  he 
hath  now  upon  the  sects  and  divisions  that  are 
among  us."  Next  he  bore  testimony  to  the  King 
his  gracious  sovereign,  as  one,  whom  in  his  con- 
science he  knew  to  be  a  sound  and  sincere  pro- 
testant.  He  dwelt  upon  the  popular  clamours 
for  justice,  as  a  practice  which  might  endanger 


LAUD. 


431 


many  an  innocent  man,  and  pluck  his  blood  upon 
the  heads  of  the  people,  and  of  that  jrcat  popu- 
lous city  :  and  he  spake  of  the  poor  Church  of 
England.  "It  hath  flourished,"  said  he,  "and 
been  a  shelter  to  other  neighbouring  churches, 
when  storms  have  driven  upon  them.  But,  alas! 
now  it  is  in  a  stor  <  itself,  and  Go'  only  know9 
whether,  or  how,  it  shall  get  out.  And,  which  is 
worse  than  the  storm  from  without,  it  is  become 
like  an  oak  cleft  io  shivers  with  wedges  made  out 
of  its  own  body,  and  at  every  cleft  profaneness  and 
irreligion  is  entering  in  ;  while  (as  Prosper  speaks, 
in  his  second  book  De  Contemptu  Vitce,)  men  that 
introduce  profaneness  are  cloked  over  with  the 
name  religionis  imaginarice,  of  imaginary  religion. 
For  we  have  lost  the  substance,  and  dwell  too 
much  in  opinion ;  and  that  Church,  which  all  the 
Jesuits'  machinations  could  not  ruin,  is  fallen  into 
danger  by  her  own. 

"  The  last  particular  (for  I  am  not  willing  to 
be  too  long)  is  myself.  I  was  born  and  baptized 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Church  of  England  esta- 
blished by  law :  in  that  profession  1  have  ever 
since  lived,  and  in  that  I  come  now  to  die.  This 
is  no  time  to  dissemble  with  God,  least  of  all  in 
matters  of  religion;  and  therefore  I  desire  it  may 
be  remembered,  I  have  always  lived  in  the  Pro- 
testant religion  established  in  England,  and  in 
that  I  come  now  to  die.     What  clamours  and 


432 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


slanders  I  have  endured  for  labouring  to  keep 
an  uniformity  in  the  external  service  of  God,  ac- 
cording to  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the 
Church,  all  men  know,  and  I  have  abundantly 
felt."  Then  he  noticed  the  accusation  of  high 
treason.  "  Besides  ray  answers  to  the  several 
charges,"  said  he,  "  I  protested  my  innocency  in 
both  houses.  It  was  said,  prisoners'  protestations 
at  the  bar  must  not  be  taken.  I  can  bring  no 
witness  of  my  heart  and  the  intentions  thereof; 
therefore  I  must  come  to  my  protestation,  not 
at  the  bar,  but  my  protestation  at  the  hour  and 
instant  of  my  death  :  in  which  I  hope  all  men 
will  be  such  charitable  christians,  as  not  to  think 
I  would  die  and  dissemble,  being  instantly  to  give 
God  an  account  for  the  truth  of  it.  I  do  there- 
fore here,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  his  holy 
angels,  tell  it  upon  my  death,  that  I  never  en- 
deavoured the  subversion  of  law  or  religion ; 
and  I  desire  you  all  to  remember  this  protest  of 
mine,  for  my  innocency  in  this,  and  from  all 
treasons  whatsoever.  I  have  been  accused,  like- 
wise, as  an  enemy  to  Parliament  :  No  ;  I  under- 
stand them,  and  the  benefit  that  comes  by  them 
too  well  to  be  so.  But  I  did  mislike  the  mis- 
government  of  some  Parliamentary  ways,  and  I 
had  good  reason  for  it.  For  corruptio  optimi  est 
pessima;  there  is  no  corruption  in  the  world,  so 
bad  as  that  which  is  of  the  best  thins:  within 


XVII. j 


LAUD. 


433 


itself ;  for  the  better  the  thing  is  in  nature,  the 
Avorse  it  is  corrupted.  And  that  being  the  highest 
court  over  which  no  other  hath  jurisdiction,  when 
it  is  misinformed  or  misgoverned,  the  subject  is 
left  without  all  remedy.  But  I  have  done.  I 
forgive  all  the  world,  all  and  every  of  those  bitter 
enemies  which  have  persecuted  me;  and  humbly 
desire  to  be  forgiven  of  God  first,  and  then  of 
every  man,  whether  I  have  offended  him  or  not; 
if  he  do  but  conceive  that  I  have,  Lord,  do  thou 
forgive  me,  and  I  beg  forgiveness  of  him!  And 
so  I  heartily  desire  you  to  join  in  prayer  with  me." 

He  had  prepared  a  prayer  for  the  occasion, 
and  never  was  there  a  more  solemn  and  impres- 
sive form  of  words ;  it  is  alike  remarkable  for  the 
state  of  mind  in  which  it  was  composed  and 
uttered  ;  the  deep  and  passionate  devotion  which 
it  breathes,  and  the  last  firm  fervent  avowal  of 
that  religious  loyalty,  for  which  he  was  at  that 
instant  about  to  die  a  martyr.  To  abridge  it 
even  of  a  word  would  be  injurious,  for  if  any 
human  composition  may  be  called  sacred,  this 
surely  deserves  to  be  so  qualified.  "  O  eternal 
God  and  merciful  Father !  look  down  upon  me 
in  mercy,  in  the  riches  and  fulness  of  all  thy  mer- 
cies, look  down  upon  me  :  but  not  till  Thou  hast 
nailed  my  sins  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  not  till 
Thou  hast  bathed  me  in  the  blood  of  Christ,  not 
till  I  have  hid  myself  in  the  wounds  of  Christ, 

vol.  ii.  28 


434 


LAUD. 


[CHAf. 


that  so  the  punishment  due  unto  my  sins  may 
pass  over  me.  And  since  Thou  art  pleased  to 
try  me  to  the  utmost,  I  humbly  beseech  Thee, 
give  me  now  in  this  great  instant,  full  patience, 
proportionable  comfort,  and  a  heart  ready  to  die 
for  thine  honour,  the  King's  happiness,  and  the 
Church's  preservation.  And  my  zeal  to  this 
(far  from  arrogancy  be  it  spoken !)  is  all  the  sin. 
(human  frailty  excepted  and  all  the  incidents 
thereunto,)  which  is  yet  known  to  me  in  this 
particular,  for  which  I  now  come  to  suffer :  I 
say,  iu  this  particular  of  treason.  But  otherwise 
my  sins  are  many  and  great :  Lord,  pardon  them 
all ;  and  those  especially  (whatever  they  are) 
which  have  drawn  down  this  present  judgement 
upon  me  !  And  when  Thou  hast  given  me 
strength  to  bear  it,  do  with  me  as  seems  best  in 
thine  own  eyes ;  and  carry  me  through  death, 
that  I  may  look  upon  it  in  what  visage  soever  it 
shall  appear  to  me.  Amen !  And  that  there 
may  be  a  stop  of  this  issue  of  blood  in  this  more 
than  miserable  kingdom,  (I  shall  desire  that  I 
may  pray  for  the  people  too,  as  well  as  for  my- 
self;) O  Lord,  I  beseech  Thee,  give  grace  of 
repentance  to  all  blood-thirsty  people.  But  if 
they  will  not  repent,  O  Lord,  confound  all  their 
devices,  defeat  and  frustrate  all  their  designs  and 
endeavours,  upon  them,  which  are  or  shall  be  con- 
trary to  the  glory  of  thy  great  name,  the  truth 


XVII.] 


LAUD. 


435 


and  sincerity  of  Religion,  the  establishment  of 
the  King  and  his  posterity  after  him  in  their  just 
rights  and  privileges,  the  honour  and  conservation 
of  Parliaments  in  their  just  power,  the  preserva- 
tion of  this  poor  Church  in  her  truth,  peace,  and 
patrimony,  and  the  settlement  of  this  distracted 
and  distressed  people  under  their  ancient  laws, 
and  in  their  native  liberty.  And  when  Thou  hast 
done  all  this  in  mere  mercy  to  them,  O  Lord,  fill 
their  hearts  with  thankfulness,  and  with  religious, 
dutiful  obedience  to  Thee  and  thy  commandments 
all  their  days.  Amen,  Lord  Jesus,  Amen.  And 
receive  my  soul  into  thy  bosom !  Amen.  Our 
Father  which  art  in  heaven  I" 

He  pronounced  this  awful  prayer  with  a  dis- 
tinct and  audible  voice,  and  giving  the  paper  to 
Dr.  Stern,  who  had  been  permitted  to  attend 
him,  desired  him  to  communicate  it  to  his  other 
chaplains,  that  they  might  see  in  what  manner 
he  left  this  world  ;  and  he  prayed  God  to  bless 
them.  Observing  also,  that  a  person  had  been 
writing  his  speech,  he  desired  him  not  to  do  him 
wrong,  by  publishing  a  false  and  imperfect  copy. 
His  countenance  had  all  this  while  a  ruddier  and 
more  animated  .  hue  than  it  was  wont  to  have  ; 
so  that  his  enemies,  with  that  malignity  which 
marked  all  their  proceedings  towards  him,  said 
he  had  painted  it,  to  fortify  his  cheeks  against 
discoverv  of  fear.  The  scaffold  was  crowded 
28 


436 


LAUD. 


with  people,  and  when  he  moved  toward  the 
block,  he  desired  he  might  have  room  to  die,  be- 
seeching them  to  let  him  have  an  end  of  his 
misery,  which  he  had  endured  very  long ;  and 
this  he  did  as  calmly  "  as  if  he  rather  had  been 
taking  order  for  a  nobleman's  funeral,  than 
making  way  for  his  own  !"  Being  come  near  it, 
he  put  off  his  doublet  and  said,  "  God's  will  be 
done!  I  am  willing  to  go  out  of  this  world: 
none  can  be  more  willing  to  send  me."  And 
seeing  through  the  chinks  of  the  boards  that 
some  persons  were  got  under  the  scaffold  about 
the  very  place  where  the  block  was  seated,  he 
called  to  the  officer  either  to  remove  them,  or 
stop  the  crevices,  saying  it  was  no  part  of  his 
desire,  that  his  blood  should  fall  upon  the  heads 
of  the  people.  "  Never,"  says  Heylyn,  "  did 
man  put  off  mortality  with  a  better  courage,  nor 
look  upon  his  bloody  and  malicious  enemies  with 
more  Christian  charity."  Sir  J.  Clotworthy  now 
molested  him  with  impertinent  questions,  and 
after  meekly  answering  him  once  or  twice,  Laud 
turned  to  the  executioner  as  the  gentler  person, 
and  giving  him  money,  said,  without  the  slightest 
change  of  countenance,  "  Here,  honest  friend, 
God  forgive  thee,  and  I  do  :  and  do  thy  office 
upon  me  with  mercy."  Then  he  knelt  down, 
and  after  a  short  prayer,  laid  his  head  upon  the 
block,   and   gave    the   signal   in   these  word?. 


XVII.] 


LAUD. 


4:J7 


"  Lord,  receive  my  soul !"  The  head  was  sever- 
ed at  one  blow  ;  and  instantly  the  face  became 
pale  as  ashes,  to  the  confusion  of  those  who  affirm- 
ed that  he  had  painted  it.  Yet  they  had  then 
the  stupidity  and  the  baseness  to  assert,  that  he 
had  reddened  his  countenance,  and  propt  up  his 
spirit  by  some  compounded  cordial  from  an  apo- 
thecary :  so  hard  is  the  heart,  and  so  impenetrable 
the  understanding,  of  the  factious. 

Great  multitudes  attended  this  victim  of  sec- 
tarian persecution  to  the  grave  ;  the  greater  part 
attracted  by  curiosity,  but  many  by  love  and 
veneration  ;  and  not  a  few,  it  is  believed,  by  re- 
morse of  conscience,  for  having  joined  in  the 
wicked  and  brutish  clamour  with  which  he  had 
been  hunted  down.  A  baser  triumph  never  was 
obtained  by  faction,  nor  was  any  triumph  ever 
more  basely  celebrated.  Even  after  this  murder 
had  been  committed  with  all  the  mockery  of  law, 
his  memory  was  assailed  in  libels  of  blacker  viru- 
lence, (if  that  be  possible,)  than  those  by  which 
the  deluded  populace  had  been  instigated  to  cry 
out  for  his  blood ;  and  to  this  day,  those  who 
have  inherited  the  opinions  of  the  Puritans,  re- 
peat with  unabashed  effrontery  the  imputations 
against  him,  as  if  they  had  succeeded  to  their 
implacable  temper,*  and  their  hardihood  of 
slander  also.    More  grateful  is  it  to  observe  how 


*  For  proof  of  this,  the  reader  is  referred  to  the  Quarterly 
Reviezv,  vol.  x.  pp.  99 — 101. 


438 


LAUD. 


[chap. 


little  is  in  the  power  of  malice,  even  when  in  the 
dispensations  of  Providence  it  is  permitted  to  do 
its  worst.  The  enemies  of  Laud  cut  off  from 
him,  at  the  utmost,  a  few  short  years  of  infirmity 
and  pain ;  and  this  was  all  they  could  do  !  They 
removed  him  from  the  sight  of  calamities,  which 
would  have  been  to  him  tenfold  more  grievous 
than  death ;  and  they  afforded  him  an  opportu- 
nity of  displaying  at  his  trial  and  on  the  scaffold, 
as  in  a  public  theatre,  a  presence  of  mind,  a 
strength  of  intellect,  a  calm  and  composed  tem- 
per, an  heroic  and  saintly  magnanimity,  which  he 
never  could  have  been  known  to  possess,  if  he 
had  not  thus  been  put  to  the  proof.  Had  they 
contented  themselves  with  stripping  him  of  his 
rank  and  fortune,  and  letting  him  go  to  the 
grave  a  poor  and  broken-hearted  old  man,  their 
calumnies  might  then  have  proved  so  effectual, 
that  he  would  have  been  more  noted  now  for  his 
infirmities,  than  for  his  great  and  eminent  virtues. 
But  they  tried  him  in  the  burning  fiery  furnace 
of  affliction,  and  then  his  sterling  worth  was  as- 
sayed and  proved.  And  the  martyrdom  of  Cran- 
mer  is  not  more  inexpiably  disgraceful  to  the 
Roman  Catholic,  than  that  of  Laud  to  the  Puritan 
persecutors. 

He  was  buried  according  to  the  rites  and  cere- 
monies of  the  Church  of  England  ;  a  circum- 
stance which  afforded  a  deep,  but  mournful,  con- 
solation to  those  who  revered  and  loved  him. 


XVII.] 


THE  DIRECTORY. 


439 


It  seemed  to  them  as  if  the  venerable  establish- 
ment itself,  over  which  he  had  presided,  and  for 
defending  which  he  had  died  a  martyr,  were 
buried  with  him  ;  for  on  the  same  day  that  six 
infamous  peers  past  the  ordinance  of  attainder 
against  him,  they  past  an  act  also,  by  which  the 
Liturgy  was  suppressed,  and  a  Directory  for  pub- 
lic worship  set  forth  in  its  stead.  This  miserable 
tract,  vviiereby  the  public  worship  of  these  king- 
dom? was  thenceforth  to  be  regulated,  is,  as  the 
title  implies,  a  mere  directory,  which  prescribed 
only  the  order  of  the  service,  leaving  every  thing 
else  to  the  discretion  of  the  minister.  He  was 
to  begin  with  prayer,  in  his  own  form  of  words, 
then  to  read  any  portion  of  scripture  which 
pleased  him,  so  it  were  not  from  the  Apocrypha, 
and  as  much  as  he  chose,  and  to  expound  it  if 
he  thought  good,  having  regard,  however,  to 
time,  that  enough  might  be  left  for  other  parts  of 
the  service  ;  and  that  this  might  not  be  rendered 
tedious,  psalm-singing  was  to  follow,  then  a 
prayer  before  sermon,  for  which  prefatory  prayer, 
five  pages  of  direction  were  given  ;  the  "  preach- 
ing of  the  word"  followed  ;  then  a  prayer  after 
sermon,  another  psalm  to  be  sung,  and,  lastly,  a 
valediction. 

Tiie  people  at  the  Communion  were  orderly 
to  sit  about  the  table.  It  was  declared  requisite 
that  on  the  sabbath  there  should  be  a  holy  ces- 


440 


THE  DIRECTORY. 


sation  all  the  day  from  all  unnecessary  labours, 
and  an  abstaining  not  only  from  all  sports  and 
pastimes,  but  also  from  all  worldly  words  and 
thoughts  ;  that  the  diet  on  that  day  should  be  so 
ordered,  as  that  neither  servants  should  be  un- 
necessarily detained  from  public  worship,  nor 
any  other  persons  hindered  from  sanctifying  the 
day ;  that  the  time  between  and  after  service 
be  spent  in  reading,  meditation,  repetition  of  ser- 
mons, (and  especially  by  calling  their  families  to 
an  account  of  what  they  had  heard,)  and  catechis- 
ing ;  holy  conferences,  prayer  for  a  blessing  upon 
the  public  ordinances,  psalm-singing,  visiting  the 
sick,  relieving  the  poor,  and  such  like  duties  of 
piety,  charity  and  mercy. 

Burials  were  to  be  without  any  religious  cere- 
mony, such  usages  having  been  abused  to  super- 
stition, being  no  way  beneficial  to  the  dead,  and 
many  ways  hurtful  to  the  living.  Nevertheless, 
it  was  judged  very  convenient  that  the  Christian 
friends  who  accompanied  the  dead  to  the  place 
appointed  for  public  burial,  should  apply  them- 
selves to  meditation  and  conferences  suitable  to 
the  occasion ;  and  the  minister,  if  he  were  present, 
might  put  them  in  remembrance  of  their  duty 
there,  as  upon  any  other  opportunity.  They  did 
not  intend  to  deny  any  civil  respects  or  differences, 
at  the  burial,  suitable  to  the  rank  and  condition  of 
the  deceased. 


XVII.] 


THE  DIRECT01U 


441 


Every  one  who  could  read  was  to  have  a  psalm 
book,  and  all  were  to  be  exhorted  to  learn  read- 
ing, that  the  whole  congregation  might  join  in 
psalmody.  But  for  the  present,  when  many  could 
not  read,  it  was  convenient  that  the  minister,  or 
some  other  fit  person,  should  read  the  psalm,  line 
by  line,  before  the  singing  thereof.  All  holy- 
days  were  abolished,  as  having  no  warrant  in  the 
word  of  God.  And  no  directions  were  given  for 
introducing  either  the  Lord's  Prayer,  the  Creed, 
or  the  Commandments. 

Such  was  the  Directory,  which  the  Assembly 
of  Divines  prepared,  and  which  a  Parliament, 
usurping  to  itself  the  whole  power  of  the  state, 
ordered  to  be  observed  ;  and  for  this  meagre 
miserable  substitution  the  Liturgy  was  to  be  laid 
aside  !  The  hatred  which  the  Puritans  expressed 
against  the  Liturgy  was  as  violent  as  it  was  un- 
reasonable, for  it  must  be  remembered  that  none 
of  them,  as  yet,  differed  in  any  single  point  from 
its  doctrines.  They  called  it,  by  a  wretched  play 
upon  the  word,  the  Lethargy  of  worship.  To 
prescribe  a  form,  they  said,  was  stopping  the 
course  of  God's  Spirit,  and  muzzling  the  mouth 
of  prayer.  They  reviled  it  as  a  compilation  made 
by  men  who  were  "  belching  the  sour  crudities  of 
yesterday's  popery ;"  and  they  declared  that  it 
had  brought  the  land  generally  to  atheism. 


442 


THE  PURITANS. 


[chap 


It  soon  indeed  became  apparent,  that  these 
blind  leaders  of  the  blind  had  themselves  pre- 
pared the  way  for  every  species  of  impiety  and 
extravagance.  They  had  raised  a  storm  whereby 
the  peace  and  happiness  of  three  kingdoms  were 
destroyed,  because  they  would  not  kneel  at  the 
communion,  tolerate  the  surplice,  use  the  finest 
liturgy  that  ever  was  composed,  nor  bow  at  the 
name  of  Jesus!  They  had  raised  the  storm,  and 
by  them  it  was  kept  up  ;  for  the  King  had  now 
yielded  every  political  point  in  dispute,  and 
nothing  but  the  intolerance  of  the  Puritans  pre- 
vented an  accommodation.  And  here  it  is  observ- 
able, that,  as  this  factious  scrupulosity  brought 
on  a  civil  war,  which  real  grievances  alone  would 
not  have  provoked,  and  thus  preserved  the  nation 
from  that  arbitrary  government,  under  which  it 
might  probably  have  settled ;  so  their  intolerant 
bigotry  averted  a  settlement,  which,  by  strip- 
ping the  King  of  his  legitimate  power,  would,  in 
its  consequences,  have  been  hardly  less  inju- 
rious: and  thus,  through  a  severe  process  of  evil, 
good  was  ultimately  educed  from  their  gross  in- 
consistencies, their  preposterous  errors,  and  their 
manifold  and  enormous  crimes. 

They  had  succeeded  in  subverting  that  goodly 
fabric  of  Church  government  which  had  been 
established  at  the  Reformation.    It  was  now  to 


XVII.] 


THE  PURITANS. 


443 


be  seen  how  their  system  would  answer  in  its 
stead,  and  how  that  system  would  be  observed 
when  they  themselves  had  destroyed  the  princi- 
ple of  obedience.  The  Assembly  set  forth  a  con- 
fession of  faith,  wherein  the  Calvinistic  opinions 
were  asserted  in  all  their  rigour ;  and  this  the 
parliament  approved.  They  drew  up  also  a 
scheme  of  Presbyterian  government,  which  was 
approved  and  established  in  Scotland,  but  for 
which  they  could  not  obtain  the  sanction  of  the 
English  Parliament.  London,  with  its  suburbs, 
however,  was  organized  upon  the  presbyterian 
plan;  and  it  is  to  be  wished  that  parts  of  this 
discipline,  particularly  its  parochial  polity,  had 
been  carried  into  effect,  and  retained  at  the  Res- 
toration, as  being  well  compatible  with  an  Epis- 
copal Church,  and  tending  greatly  to  its  efficiency 
and  support.  But  even  in  the  Assembly,  con- 
vened as  it  had  been  under  their  own  direction, 
the  Presbyterians  were  opposed  by  two  parties, 
differing  widely  from  each  other,  but  uniting  now 
against  a  sect  as  intolerant,  when  it  had  obtained 
power,  as  it  had  heretofore  been  impatient  of 
conformity.  The  Erastians  were  the  ones,  who, 
regarding  the  Church  as  a  part  of  the  state,  and 
properly  subservient  to  it,  were  for  allowing  no 
coercive  power  to  the  Clergy.  The  most  learned 
of  the  members  held  these  opinions,  and  they 
were  also  well  supported  in  the  House  of  Corn- 


444 


THE  PURITANS. 


[chap. 


mons.  The  Independents  were  not  so  numerous 
in  the  Assembly,  and  the  ablest  of  their  repre- 
sentatives was  now  becoming  obnoxious  for  em- 
bracing and  defending  the  Arminian  doctrine ; 
but  they  were  strong  in  the  principle  of  tolera- 
tion, which  they  professed  though  they  did  not 
always  practise  ;  they  were  acquiring  an  ascen- 
dency in  the  state,  and  the  sword  was  in  their 
hands. 

These  parties  had  each  a  clear  and  intelligible 
principle.  The  Erastians  might  prefer  one  form 
of  ecclesiastical  government  to  another,  but  could 
consistently  and  conscientiously  conform  to  any, 
from  which  they  did  not  differ  in  points  of  doc- 
trine. The  scheme  of  the  Independents  was 
methodical,  practical  and  efficient,  though  liable 
to  more  objections  than  the  Presbyterian  plat- 
form, as  that  is  far  inferior  to  the  Episcopal  form, 
even  if  the  question  were  considered  prospective- 
ly alone,  in  its  mere  political  bearings.  But  be- 
sides these  there  were  others,  "  higher  flown  and 
more  seraphical a  rabble  of  sectaries  started 
up,  so  many  and  so  various,  that  names  for  half 
of  them  have  not  been  found  in  the  nomenclature 
of  heresy.  "Strange  monsters,"  the  Presbyte- 
rians called  them,  "having  their  heads  of  En- 
thusiasm, their  bodies  of  Antinomianism,  their 
thighs  of  Familism,  their  legs  and  feet  of  Anabap- 
tism.  their  hands  of  Arminianism,  and  Libertinism 


THE  PURITANS. 


445 


is  the  great  vein  running  through  the  whole." 
Thus  they  who  had  broken  down  the  fences  com- 
plained, when  they  saw  what  a  herd  of  unclean 
beasts  followed  them  into  the  vineyard.  "  We 
have  the  plague  of  Egypt  upon  us,"  said  they, 
"  frogs  out  of  the  bottomless  pit  covering  our  land, 
coming  into  our  houses,  bed-chambers,  beds, 
churches :  a  man  can  hardly  come  into  any  place 
but  some  croaking  frog  or  other  will  be  coming 
up  upon  him."  And  they  who  had  plunged  these 
kingdoms  into  civil  war,  rather  than  submit  to  a 
hierarchy  which  required  from  its  ministers  no- 
thing more  than  the  due  observance  of  its  decent 
forms,  cried  out  against  toleration,  now  that  they 
had  set  up  an  establishment  of  their  own,  as  "  the 
grand  design  of  the  Devil,  the  most  transcendent, 
catholic  and  fundamental  of  all  evils,  the  Abad- 
don, the  Apollyon,  the  abomination  of  desolation 
and  astonishment." 

For  awhile  the  rod  was  in  their  hands,  and 
they  made  its  iron  weight  be  felt.  These  men, 
who  had  pleaded  conscience  about  a  gesture  and 
a  garment,  prohibited  the  use  of  the  Common 
Prayer,  not  merely  in  Churches,  Chapels,  and 
places  of  Public  worship,  but  in  any  private  place 
or  family  as  well,  under  penalty  of  five  pounds 
for  the  first  offence,  ten  for  the  second,  and  for 
the  third  a  year's  imprisonment.  And  whoever 
should  preach,  write  or  print  any  thing  in  dero- 


446 


THE  PURITAN? 


gation  of  the  Directory,  was  to  forfeit,  for  the  use 
of  the  poor,  a  sum  not  less  than  five  pounds,  nor 
exceeding  fifty.  They  voted  in  the  Assembly  that 
the  power  of  the  keys  was  in  the  officers  of  the 
Church,  whereby  they  could  retain  or  remit  sins, 
shut  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  and  open  it,  and  this, 
with  the  power  of  excommunication,  they  voted 
to  be  theirs  by  divine  right.  But  though  the 
Parliament  assented  to  this  claim  of  power,  they 
frustrated  its  purport  by  providing  an  appeal  to 
itself,  and  reserving  to  the  magistrate  the  cogni- 
zance of  all  capital  offences.  The  Assembly  ven- 
tured to  petition  against  this  on  the  ground  of  the 
divine  right,  and  in  better  reliance  upon  the 
Scotch,  who  were  disposed  with  their  whole 
force  to  assist  them  in  their  preposterous  preten- 
sions They  were  alarmed  when  the  committee 
of  the  House  of  Commons,  to  which  their  peti- 
tion was  referred,  reported  that  they  were  guilty 
of  a  praemunire  ;  and  they  found  afterwards,  that 
in  relying  upon  the  Scotch,  they  leant  upon  a 
broken  reed. 

But  when  the  King,  after  the  total  wreck  of  his 
cause,  had  taken  shelter  with  the  Scotch  army, 
the  Presbyterians  would  gladly  have  obtained  the 
sanction  of  his  authority,  which  would  have  en- 
abled them  to  trample  upon  the  Independents, 
and  they  would  have  set  up  again  the  throne 
which  they  had  subverted,  if  they  could  hare  set 


THE  PURITANS. 


447 


up  their  own  Right  Divine  with  it.  The  terms 
which  they  proposed  indicated  the  implacable- 
ness  of  their  political  hatred,  and  the  extent  of 
their  religious  intolerance.  They  excepted  from 
a  general  pardon  above  threescore  persons  by 
name,  besides  whole  classes  of  men,  in  terms  so 
general  that  scarcely  any  one,  who  had  served 
the  King,  could  feel  himself  secure.  They  re- 
quired severer  measures  against  the  Romanists, 
and  demanded  that  an  act  should  be  past  for  edu- 
cating the  children  of  Papists  by  Protestants,  m 
the  Protestant  religion.  They  insisted  upon  the 
utter  abolishment  of  episcopacy,  and  that  the 
King  should  take  the  Covenant  himself,  and  im- 
pose it  upon  all  in  the  three  kingdoms.  This 
most  unfortunate  and  most  caluminated  Prince 
is  charged  with  insincerity  ;  because  he  hesitated 
and  wavered  in  circumstances  where  he  had  only 
a  choice  of  evils.  But  though  by  nature  infirm 
of  purpose,  few  men  have  ever  been  more  nobly 
and  religiously  fixed  in  principle  :  not  only  at 
this  time,  but  when  the  Scotch  had  sold  him  to 
his  enemies,  he  might,  to  all  human  appearance, 
have  preserved  himself,  if  he  would  have  sacri- 
ficed the  Church.  They  who  accuse  Charles  of 
seeking  to  bring  back  the  Romish  superstition, 
and  of  systematic  duplicity,  perceive  not  how,  in 
recording  this  acknowledged  fact,  they  thoroughly 
disprove  their  own  slanderous  accusation.  Prest 


448 


THE  PURITANS. 


[chap. 


as  he  was  by  foes  who  held  him  in  captivity,  and 
beset  by  weak  or  treacherous  friends,  he  conti- 
nued firm  upon  this  great  point.  The  Queen, 
who  had  always  been  an  unfortunate  adviser,  and 
too  often  an  evil  one,  urged  him  to  give  up  the. 
Church ;  for  this  would  have  been  as  much  a 
subject  of  triumph  to  the  Romanists  as  to  the 
Sectarians.  But  Charles  was  not  to  be  shaken ; 
he  rested  upon  his  coronation  oath,  and  upon  his 
own  deliberate  and  well  grounded  conviction  that 
episcopacy  was  the  form  of  Church  government 
which  had  been  handed  down  to  us  from  the 
apostles.  To  those  who  prest  him  with  argu- 
ments, he  answered  with  sound  learning,  sound 
judgement,  and  the  strength  of  truth  ;  and  to  his 
ill-advising  friends  he  replied  that  his  conscience 
was  dearer  to  him  than  his  crown.  To  this  de- 
termination he  adhered  in  the  extremity  of  his 
fortune. 

The  Puritans,  unable  to  obtain  the  King's  con- 
sent, proceeded  in  this,  as  they  had  done  in  so 
many  other  acts  of  iniquity,  upon  their  own 
usurped  authority.  They  had  already  abolished 
episcopal  jurisdiction,  they  now  abolished  the 
rank  and  order,  and  confiscated  all  their  rights 
and  possessions.  The  spoils  they  shared  among 
themselves  and  their  adherents,  by  lavish  grants, 
or  such  sales  as  were  little  more  than  nominal. 
Sir  Arthur  Hazlerigg  secured  so  large  a  portion 


THE  PURITANS. 


449 


that  he  was  called  the  Bishop  of  Durham. 
Dr.  Cornelius  Bulges,  also,  one  of  the  most  ac- 
tive of  the  Puritan  divines  in  kindling  the  rebel- 
lion, became  a  large  purchaser,  though  he  had 
formerly  maintained  that  it  was  utterly  unlawful 
to  convert  such  endowments  to  any  private  per- 
son's profit.  Loudly,  indeed,  as  the  puritanical 
clergy  had  declaimed  against  the  wealth  and 
power  of  the  Bishops,  they  had  shown  themselves 
far  from  indifferent  to  either  when  they  had 
brought  them  within  their  reach.  "  Setting  sail 
to  all  winds  that  might  blow  gain  into  their  co- 
vetous bosoms,"  they  took  all  they  could  get,  not 
scrupling  to  hold  at  the  same  time,  masterships 
in  the  University,  lectureships  in  the  city,  and 
one,  two,  or  more,  of  the  best  livings,  from  which 
the  lawful  incumbents  had  been  turned  out  with 
their  families  to  starve,  if  they  could  not  obtain 
their  fifths  from  these  hard-hearted  intruders. 
Nor  had  the  Bishops  ever  claimed  half  the  power 
in  spiritual  or  temporal  affairs,  which  these  men 
exercised.  The  temper  of  the  episcopal  Church 
had  become  wisely  tolerant.  It  required  confor- 
mity from  its  ministers,  but  carried  on  no  war 
against  the  consciences  of  men ;  the  clamour 
which  had  been  raised  with  most  effect  against 
the  hierarchy,  was  for  not  exerting  the  rigour 
of  the  law  against  the  Papists.  The  Puritans 
meddled  with  every  thing.  They  abolished  may- 
vol.  ir.  29 


450 


THE  PURITANS. 


poles,  and  they  prohibited  servants  and  children 
from  walking  in  the  fields  on  the  Sabbath  day. 
They  appointed  the  second  Tuesday  in  every 
month,  for  reasonable  recreation,  all  holidays 
having  been  suppressed;  and  they  past  an  ordi- 
nance by  which  eight  heresies  were  made  pu- 
nishable with  death  upon  the  first  offence,  unless 
the  offender  abjured  his  errors,  and  irremissibly 
if  he  relapsed.  Sixteen  other  opinions  were  to 
be  punished  with  imprisonment,  till  the  offender 
should  find  sureties  that  he  would  maintain  them 
no  more.  Among  these  were  the  belief  in  pur- 
gatory, the  opinion  that  God  might  be  wor- 
shipped in  pictures  or  images,  free  will,  universal 
restitution,  and  the  sleep  of  the  soul.  Their 
laws  also  for  the  suppression  of  immorality  were 
written  in  blood. 

Such  edicts  were  of  no  avail ;  the  men  who 
enacted  them  had  destroyed  the  principle  and 
habit  of  obedience.  In  the  course  of  unerring 
retribution,  the  prime  movers  of  the  rebellion 
were  thrust  from  their  abused  station  by  men 
more  audacious  and  more  consistent  in  guilt. 
After  the  murder  of  the  King,  change  followed 
change,  but  no  change  brought  stability  to  the 
state  or  repose  to  the  nation,  not  even  when  the 
supreme  and  absolute  authority  was  usurped  by 
a  man,  who,  of  all  others,  was  the  most  worthy  to 
hare  exercised  it.  had  it  lawfully  devolved  upon 


THE  PURITANS. 


451 


him.  Cromwell  relieved  the  country  from  Pres- 
byterian intolerance ;  and  he  curbed  those  fana- 
tics who  were  for  proclaiming  King  Jesus,  that, 
as  his  saints,  they  might  divide  the  land  amongst 
themselves.  But  it  required  all  his  strength  to 
do  this,  and  to  keep  down  the  spirit  of  political 
and  religious  fanaticism,  when  his  own  mind  by 
its  constitutional  strength  had  shaken  off  both 
diseases.  He  then  saw  and  understood  the 
beauty,  and  the  utility,  and  the  necessity  of  those 
establishments,  civil  and  ecclesiastical,  over  the 
ruins  of  which  he  had  made  his  way  to  power ; 
and  gladly  would  he  have  restored  the  monarchy 
and  the  episcopal  church.  But  he  was  deterred 
from  the  only  practicable  course  less  by  the  dan- 
ger of  the  attempt,  than  by  the  guilty  part  which 
he  had  borne  in  the  king's  fate;  and  at  the  time 
when  Europe  regarded  him  with  terror  and  ad- 
miration as  the  ablest  and  most  powerful  poten- 
tate of  the  age,  he  was  paying  the  bitter  penalty 
of  successful  ambition,  consumed  by  cares  and 
anxieties  and  secret  fears,  and  only  preserved 
from  all  the  horrors  of  remorse  by  the  spiritual 
drams  which  were  administered  to  him  as  long  as 
he  had  life. 

Eighteen  months  of  anarchy  after  Cromwell's 
death  made  the  nation  impatient  of  its  oppres- 
sors, and  indignant  at  its  long  sufferings.  Even 
the  men  who  had  been  most  instrumental  in 
29 


452 


THE  PURITANS.  [chaf.  xvii. 


bringing  on  its  misery  and  degradation  were 
brought  to  their  senses.  The  national  wish  was 
felt  and  obeyed  at  a  time  when  no  one  dared 
utter  it;  and  Charles  II.  was  invited  uncondition- 
ally from  exile  to  his  paternal  throne,  by  a  people 
who  desired  nothing  more  than  the  restoration  of 
those  institutions  under  which  England  had  been 
prosperous  and  happy. 


453 


CHAPTER  XVI11. 


CHARI.ES   II.  JAMES  II.  THE  REVOLUTION. 

When  Charles  I.  was  in  the  hands  of  his  ene- 
mies, and  had  reason  to  apprehend  that  he  should 
never  be  delivered  from  them,  he  addressed  a  pa- 
per of  advice  to  his  son,  and  thus  exhorted  him 
concerning  that  Church  which  had  deserved,  and 
requited  with  such  true  loyalty,  his  sincere  and 
dutiful  attachment  :  "  If  you  never  see  my  face 
again,  and  God  will  have  me  buried  in  such  a 
barbarous  imprisonment  and  obscurity  wherein 
few  hearts  that  love  me  are  permitted  to  ex- 
change a  word  or  a  look  with  me,  I  do  require 
and  entreat  you,  as  your  Father  and  your  King, 
'that  you  never  suffer  your  heart  to  receive  the 
least  check  against,  or  disaffection  from,  the  true 
Religion  established  in  the  Church  of  England. 
I  tell  you  I  have  tried  it,  and,  after  much  search 
and  many  disputes,  have  concluded  it  to  be  the 
best  in  the  world,  not  only  in  the  community  as 
Christian,  but  also  in  the  special  notion  as  Re- 
formed; keeping  the  middle  way  between  the 
pomp  of  superstitious  tyranny,    and  the  mean- 


454 


CHARLES  II. 


[chap- 


ness  of  fantastic  anarchy  Not  but  that,  the 

draught  being  excellent  as  to  the  main,  both  for 
doctrine  and  government  in  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, some  lines,  as  in  very  good  figures,  may  hap- 
ly need  some  correcting  and  polishing;  which  might 
have  easily  been  done  by  a  safe  and  gentle  hand, 
if  some  men's  precipitancy  had  not  violently  de- 
manded such  rude  alterations  as  would  have  quite 
destroyed  all  the  beauty  and  proportions  of  the 
whole  . . .  The  scandal  of  the  late  troubles,  which 
some  may  object  and  urge  to  you  against  the 
Protestant  Religion  established  in  England,  is 
easily  answered  to  them  or  your  own  thoughts 
in  this,  that  scarce  any  one  who  hath  been  a  be- 
ginner or  an  active  prosecutor  of  this  late  war 
against  the  Church,  the  laws  and  me,  either  was, 
or  is  a  true  lover,  embracer  or  practiser  of  the 
Protestant  Religion  established  in  England,  which 
neither  gives  such  rules,  nor  ever  before  set  such 
examples." 

Then  after  some  political  advice  in  a  strain  of 
wise  and  magnanimous  piety,  the  captive  king 
concluded  in  these  affecting  words,  "  In  sum, 
what  good  I  intended,  do  you  perform  when  God 
shall  give  you  power.  Much  good  I  have  of- 
fered, more  I  purposed  to  Church  and  State,  if 
times  had  been  capable  of  it . .  .  Happy  times,  I 
hope,  attend  you,  wherein  your  subjects,  by  their 
miseries,  will  have  learnt,  that  Religion  to  their 


XVIII.] 


CHARLES  II. 


455 


God  and  Loyalty  to  their  King  cannot  be  parted 
without  both  their  sin  and  their  infelicity.  I  pray 
God  bless  you  and  establish  your  kingdom  in  righte- 
ousness, your  soul  in  true  religion,  and  your  ho- 
nour in  the  love  of  God  and  your  people.  And 
if  God  will  have  disloyalty  perfected  by  my  de- 
struction, let  my  memory  ever,  with  my  name, 
live  in  you,  as  of  your  lather  that  loves  you,  and 
once  a  King  of  three  flourishing  kingdoms,  whom 
God  thought  fit  to  honour  not  only  with  the 
sceptre  and  government  of  them,  but  also  with 
the  suffering  many  indignities  and  an  untimely 
death  for  them,  while  I  studied  to  preserve  the 
rights  of  the  Church,  the  power  of  the  Laws,  the 
honour  of  my  Crown,  the  privilege  of  Parliament, 
the  liberties  of  my  People,  and  my  own  Con- 
science, which,  thank  God,  is  dearer  to  me  than 
a  thousand  kingdoms.  I  know  God  can,  I  hope 
He  yet  will,  restore  me  to  my  rights.  I  cannot 
despair  either  of  His  mercy,  or  of  my  people's 
love  and  pity.  At  worst,  I  trust  1  shall  but  go  be- 
fore you  to  a  better  kingdom  which  God  hath  pre- 
pared for  me,  and  me  for  it,  through  my  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ,  to  whose  mercies  I  commend  you  and 
all  mine.  Farewell,  till  we  meet,  if  not  on  earth> 
yet  in  heaven." 

The  late  King  had  also  left  in  the  care  of  one 
of  his  chaplains,  afterwards  Archbishop  Sheldon, 
a  written  vow,  that  if  it  should  please  God  to  re- 


456 


CHARLES  II. 


[chap. 


establish  him  on  his  throne,  he  would  wholly  give 
back  to  the  Church  all  those  impropriations  which 
were  held  by  the  crown;  and  what  crown  lands 
soever  had  been  taken  from  any  see,  collegiate 
church,  or  other  religious  foundation,  he  would 
hold  hereafter  from  the  church  under  such  rea- 
sonable fines  and  rents  as  should  be  set  by  consci- 
entious persons  appointed  to  that  trust. 

Such  had  been  the  intentions  of  the  murdered 
King  concerning  the  Church;  and  the  feelings  of 
the  nation  were  as  unequivocally  understood  : 
they  desired  the  re-establishment  of  that  Church 
for  which  Cranmer  had  died  at  the  stake  and  Laud 
on  the  scaffold  :  and  this  indeed  was  known  to  be 
the  natural  and  sure  consequence  of  Charles's 
restoration.  But  it  was  impossible  to  remedy  the 
evil  which  twenty  years  of  religious  anarchy  had 
produced.  A  fair  promise,  however,  was  held 
forth  in  the  King's  Declaration  from  Breda,  that 
the  most  conciliatory  measures  should  be  pur- 
sued. It  was  there  said,  "  because  the  passions 
and  uncharitablencss  of  the  times  have  produced 
several  opinions  in  religion,  by  which  men  are 
engaged  in  parties  and  animosities  against  each 
other,  which,  when  they  shall  hereafter  unite  in 
a  freedom  of  conversation  will  be  composed,  or 
better  understood ;  we  do  declare  a  liberty  to 
tender  consciences,  and  that  no  man  shall  be 
disquieted,  or  called  in  question,  for  difference^  of 


XVIII.] 


CHARLES  II. 


457 


opinion  in  matters  of  religirn  which  do  not  disturb 
the  peace  of  the  kingdom;  and  that  we  shall  be 
ready  to  consent  to  such  an  act  of  Parliament,  as 
upon  mature  deliberation  shall  be  offered  to  us  for 
the  full  granting  that  indulgence." 

As  Charles  granted,  in  its  full  extent,  the  in- 
demnity which  was  offered  in  this  Declaration, 
so  it  may  be  affirmed  that  he  was  sincere  in  pro- 
mising liberty  of  conscience.  The  promise  was 
not  kept ;  for  Parliament  did  not  think  proper  to 
prepare  such  an  Act,  and  all  parties  were  in  a 
temper  the  most  unfavourable  for  the  design,  the 
King  being,  perhaps,  the  only  person  who  was 
sincerely  disposed  to  it.  This  disposition  did 
not  proceed  in  him  wholly  from  looseness  of 
opinion,  nor  from  that  easiness  of  temper  which 
though  akin  to  virtue  is  so  easily  made  subservient 
to  vice.  It  arose  from  a  just  and  honourable 
sentiment  of  shame,  that  laws  so  severe  as  those 
against  the  Roman  Catholics  should  continue  to 
exist,  after  the  political  necessity  for  them  had 
ceased.  If  any  favourable  inclination  toward 
their  system  of  belief  had  at  that  time  begun  to 
influence  him,  it  did  not  appear  in  his  conduct ; 
nor  does  it  seem  to  have  been  any  thing  more  than 
what  he  naturally  felt  as  one  whose  mother,  most 
unfortunately  for  these  kingdoms,  was  a  Papist. 
The  liberty  of  conscience  which  he  desired  for 
them,  he  would  have  allowed  to  all ;  but  by  a  sin- 


458 


CHARLES  II. 


[chap. 


gular  infelicity  of  circumstances  there  never  was 
a  time  when  such  tremendous  objections  existed 
to  this  desirable  toleration.  The  Puritans,  who 
sought  it  for  themselves,  would  not  allow  it  to  the 
Catholics;  and,  indeed,  it  was  evident  to  all  rea- 
sonable men  that  each  of  these  parties  required 
it  only  as  a  step  to  something  more.  There  had 
arisen  a  general  and  well  founded  apprehen- 
sion that  the  Cai holies  were  becoming  dangerous 
to  the  state.  It  was  believed  that  the  late  trou- 
bles had  been  insidiously  fomented  by  Romish 
agents  with  a  view  of  promoting  the  Romish  cause  : 
it  was  certain  that  they  had  profited  by  them,  and 
made  more  converts  than  in  any  former  genera- 
tion ;  among  these  were  many  persons  of  great 
note  and  influence,  and  more  than  had  yet  avow- 
ed themselves  were  suspected.  It  had  been  re- 
ported during  the  King's  exile,  that  he  and  his 
brothers  had  changed  their  religion ;  the  motives 
for  raising  the  report  were  palpable ;  but  there 
was  too  much  ground  for  apprehending  that  such 
a  perversion  was  far  from  improbable,  and  with  a 
Catholic  King,  or  a  Catholic  Heir  Presumptive,  it 
was  certain  that  there  could  be  no  safety  for  the 
Protestant  Church. 

The  Catholics,  however,  soon,  by  their  own 
imprudence,  relieved  Charles  from  any  perplexity 
on  their  score.  They  could  not  agree  among 
themselves ;  they  reviled  the  Marian  martyrs  in 


XVIII.] 


CHARLES  II. 


459 


a  strain  which  evinced  how  willingly  they  would 
have  commenced  another  such  persecution  had 
the  pow  er  been  in  their  hands  ;  and  they  provoked 
the  ministry  to  remember  that  they  had  slighted 
the  King  in  his  exile,  and  had  treated  with  Crom- 
well for  taking  an  oath  of  submission  to  his  go- 
vernment as  the  price  of  that  indulgence,  which 
he,  in  his  true  spirit  of  toleration,  was  willing  to 
have  granted.  The  point  was  still  to  be  settled 
with  the  Puritans,  and  with  them  it  appeared  that 
before  the  question  of  toleration  was  considered, 
that  of  power  was  to  be  deeided.  The  Presby- 
terians, who  were  the  most  numerous  and  best 
organized  party,  made  a  skilful  attempt,  when 
they  declared  for  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy, 
to  establish  that  pattern  in  the  mount,  for  the 
sake  of  which  they  had  commenced  the  work  of 
its  destruction.  They  had  a  majority  in  the 
House  of  Commons,  and  formed  a  Committee  of 
Religion  before  the  King's  return,  meaning  to 
present  for  his  sanction  a  plan  of  Church  Go- 
vernment conformable  to  their  principles ;  but 
notwithstanding  all  the  precautions  which  they 
had  taken  to  manage  the  elections,  many  mem- 
bers faithful  to  the  legitimate  establishment  were 
returned,  who  frustrated  their  project  by  im- 
peding it  till  the  first  adjournment  of  the  House, 
when  the  King  told  them  that,  as  they  had  of- 
fered him  no  advice  towards  composing  the  dif- 


460 


CHARLES  II. 


[chap. 


ferences  in  religion,  he  would  try  what  he  could  do 
in  it  himself. 

The  national  feeling  had  already  been  mani- 
fested. At  the  moment  when  the  cannon  an- 
nounced the  King's  peaceful  return  to  the  palace 
of  his  fathers,  some  of  the  sequestered  Bishops, 
and  other  clergy,  performed  a  service  of  thanks- 
giving, in  Henry  the  Seventh's  chapel,  with  feel- 
ings such  as  no  other  service  of  joy  can  ever  have 
excited.  In  most  parts  of  the  country,  where 
the  minister  was  w^ll  disposed,  a  repeal  of  the 
laws  against  the  Liturgy  was  not  waited  for,  so 
certain  was  it  held,  by  every  sound  old  Euglish 
heart,  that  the  constitution  of  their  fathers,  in 
church  as  well  as  in  state,  was  now  to  be  re- 
stored. The  Presbyterians  felt  this;  but  when 
they  saw  how  impossible  it  was  to  obtain  a  real 
triumph,  they  sought  for  such  a  compromise  as 
might  be  made  to  bear  the  semblance  of  one. 
Their  hope  now  was,  that  the  Church  would  give 
up  some  of  its  ceremonies,  and  alter  its  Liturgy  to 
their  liking.  But  in  aiming  at  this  their  leaders 
proceeded  with  a  bad  faith,  which,  when  it  was 
detected,  abated  both  the  hope  and  the  wish  of 
conciliating  them. 

After  a  conference  between  some  of  the  Lon- 
don ministers,  who  were  the  heads  of  the  Pres- 
byterian party,  and  an  equal  number  of  the  loyal 
and  long  sequestered  Clergy,  the  King  published 


XVIII.] 


CHARLES  II. 


461 


a  declaration,  stating  that  he  had  commanded 
the  Clergy  on  both  sides  to  meet,  and  agree,  if 
possible,  upon  an  Act  of  Uniformity,  which  might 
be  confirmed  in  Parliament.  In  the  meantime, 
he  signified  his  pleasure  that  both  should  be  at 
liberty,  the  one  to  use  the  Liturgy,  the  surplice, 
and  the  sign  of  the  cross;  the  other,  to  follow 
their  own  custom.  The  draught  of  this  declara- 
tion was  shown  to  the  London  ministers,  before 
it  was  promulgated ;  it  then  contained  a  clause 
in  which  the  King  declared'  his  own  constant 
practice  of  the  Common  Prayer,  and  said,  he 
should  take  it  well  from  those  who  used  it  in 
their  Churches,  that  the  people  might  be  again 
acquainted  with  the  piety,  gravity,  and  devotion 
of  it,  and  that  their  living  in  good  neighbour- 
hood might  thus  be  facilitated.  After  some  days' 
consideration,  some  of  the  ministers,  and  Calamy 
among  them,  who  was  one  of  the  most  active  and 
influential  of  that  party,  came,  deputed  by  the 
rest,  to  the  Chancellor,  Lord  Clarendon,  and  re- 
quested that  this  clause  might  be  omitted,  say- 
ing they  desired  it  for  the  King's  own  end, 
and  that  they  might  the  better  show  their  obe- 
dience and  resolution  to  serve  him.  They  would 
first  reconcile  the  people,  they  said,  who  for  near 
twenty  years  had  not  been  acquainted  with  that 
form.  They  Avould  inform  them  that  it  con- 
tained much  piety  and  devotion,  and  might  law- 


462 


CHARLES  11. 


[chap. 


fully  be  used  ;  they  would  then  begin  to  use  it 
themselves,  and  by  degrees  accustom  the  people 
to  it.  And  this  would  have  a  better  effect  than 
if  the  clause  were  published;  for  they  should 
then  be  thought  in  their  persuasions,  to  act  not 
from  conscience  and  duty,  but  for  the  sake  of 
complying  with  the  King's  wish,  and  meriting 
his  favour ;  and  they  feared  other  ill  conse- 
quences from  the  waywardness  of  the  common 
people,  who  required  management,  and  were  not 
to  be  brought  round  at  once. 

Clarendon  believed  them,  and  in  their  presence 
repeated  to  the  King  what  they  had  represented. 
They  again  protested  that  their  sole  object  was 
to  promote  the  King's  end ;  Charles  also  gave 
them  credit  for  sincerity,  and  the  clause  was  left 
out.  The  people  were  generally  satisfied  with 
the  declaration  ;  but  it  was  soon  perceived  that 
the  puritanical  Clergy  were  not,  and  that  their 
emissaries  were  employed  in  exciting  discontent. 
Their  letters  were  intercepted;  and  among  many 
of  a  like  tendency  was  one  from  Calamy  himself, 
to  a  leading  minister  in  Somersetshire,  entreat- 
ing that  he  and  his  friends  would  persist  in  the 
use  of  the  Directory,  and  by  no  means  admit  the 
Common  Prayer  in  their  Churches  ;  for  he  made 
no  question  but  that  they  should  prevail  further 
with  the  King  than  he  had  consented  to  in  that 
declaration.    This  proof  of  knavery  in  the  leaders. 


XTIII.] 


CHARLES  U. 


463 


was  followed  by  an  instance  of  sufficient  effrontery 
to  defeat  its  own  purpose,  the  days  of  mob  peti- 
tioning being  over.  A  petition  was  presented 
in  the  name  of  the  London  Ministers,  and  many 
others  of  the  same  opinion,  thanking  the  King 
for  his  Declaration,  and  saying  they  received  it 
as  an  earnest  of  his  future  goodness,  in  granting 
all  those  other  concessions  which  were  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  liberty  of  their  consciences ; 
and  they  prayed  that  the  wearing  the  surplice, 
and  the  use  of  the  cross  in  baptism,  might  be 
absolutely  abolished,  as  being  scandalous  to  all 
men  of  tender  consciences.  The  names  of  those 
persons  who  had  attended  at  the  conference,  and 
requested  the  King  to  withdraw  the  clause,  were 
not  affixed  to  the  petition;  but  it  came  signed  by 
those  who  had  deputed  them  ;  and  after  these 
proofs  of  effrontery  and  bad  faith  it  was  plain 
that  nothing  could  be  effected  with  such  persons 
by  conciliatory  means. 

Conciliation,  however,  was  still  tried ;  and 
after  the  vacant  sees  had  been  filled  up,  and  the 
act  repealed  which  excluded  the  Bishops  from 
Parliament,  the  Bishops  were  required  to  make 
such  alterations  in  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer, 
as  they  thought  would  make  it  more  acceptable 
to  the  "  Dissenting  brethren,"  and  such  additions 
as  the  temper  of  the  present  times,  and  the  past 
calamities  required.    Neither  the  good,  nor  the 


464 


CHARLES  II. 


[chap. 


evil,  which  were  predicted  from  this  measure, 
ensued.  The  alterations  did  not  conciliate  a 
party  whom  nothing  could  have  conciliated;  nor 
did  they  afford  a  plea  for  representing  that  the 
Church  had  in  any  respect  changed  its  tenets  or 
its  ceremonies,  or  admitted  that  they  stood  in 
need  of  reform.  Long  conferences  took  place 
between  the  Bishops,  and  the  most  eminent  of 
the  Presbyterian  Clergy,  of  whom  Baxter,  Rey- 
nolds, and  Calamy,  were  the  most  conspicuous. 
The  former  offered,  on  the  part  of  his  brethren, 
a  Liturgy  which  they  had  authorized  him  to 
compile  ;  and  presented  their  exceptions  to  that 
of  the  Church :  it  is  even  pitiful  to  see  how  cap- 
tious and  utterly  frivolous  are  the  greater  part, 
the  very  few  to  which  any  weight  might  have 
been  assigned,  lost  all  their  force  from  being 
mingled  with  such  empty  cavillings.  And  the 
conference  ended  in  showing  how  hopeless  it  was 
that  any  thing  like  union  could  be  effected. 

It  is  obvious  that  no  possible  comprehension, 
consistent  with  the  existence  of  the  Establish- 
ment, could  have  taken  in  any  other  class  of  Non- 
conformists than  the  Presbyterians.  The  Inde- 
pendents, and  a  host  of  other  Sectaries  in  their 
endless  varieties,  must  necessarily  have  been  ex- 
cluded. The  same  difficulty  was  found  in  the 
way  of  a  general  toleration;  for  there  were  few 
of  these  sects  who  did  not  hold  opinions  which. 


CHARLES  II. 


465 


in  the  judgement  of  the  others,  were  intolerable  ; 
and  there  were  some  whose  madness  it  was  im- 
possible to  tolerate.  The  Levellers,  and  the  Fifth 
Monarchy  men,  have  been  formidable  enough  to 
disquiet  Cromwell ;  and  they  were  fanatical 
enough  for  any  attempt,  however  desperate  or 
atrocious.  A  band  of  these  madmen  sallied  from 
their  meeting-house,  proclaimed  King  Jesus  in 
the  streets  of  London,  killed  some  twenty  men, 
and  lost  as  many  themselves,  before  they  could 
be  secured.  This  explosion,  the  discovery  of 
some  treasons,  and  the  report  of  more,  operated 
grievously  against  the  whole  bodies  of  Dissen- 
ters. It  was  not  sufficiently  considered  how 
widely  the  great  majority  of  them  differed  in 
opinion  from  these  rabid  enthusiasts,  because 
it  was  known  that  the  principle  of  discontent  Avas 
common  to  them  all,  and  that  discontent  passes 
easily  into  disaffection.  The  general  feeling 
therefore  was  against  any  compromise  with  men, 
to  whom  the  nation  imputed  all  its  long  cala- 
mities ;  and  Charles  did  not  think  himself  bound, 
by  his  declaration  from  Breda,  to  any  thing  more 
upon  the  subject,  of  religion,  than  to  pass  such 
an  act  as  the  Parliament  might  think  proper  to 
offer.  A  new  Parliament  had  been  called,  and 
under  circumstances  in  which  the  public  feeling 
could  be  fairly  represented.  The  Liturgy  as 
vol.  ii.  30 


466 


CHARLES  II 


[chap. 


approved  by  the  Convocation,  and  confirmed  by 
the  King  under  the  Great  Seal,  was  presented 
to  it,  and  received ;  and  an  Act  of  Uniformity 
past,  with  some  clauses  which  the  wisest  states- 
men and  truest  friends  of  the  Church  disap- 
proved, but  were  unable  to  prevent.  One  of 
these  excluded  all  persons  from  the  ministry,  who 
had  not  received  episcopal  ordination  ; ...  all  there- 
fore who  had  received  presbyterian  orders  were 
to  quit  their  benefices,  or  submit  to  be  re-ordained. 
Another  required  a  subscription  from  every  man 
about  to  receive  any  preferment  in  the  Universi- 
ties or  the  Church,  declaring  his  assent  and  con- 
sent to  every  thing  in  the  Book  of  Common 
Prayer, . . .  Avords  which  gave  occasion  to  cavils 
of  the  same  kind  as  had  been  raised  against  the 
et  cetera  oath.  But  the  touchstone  was  a  clause, 
which  the  Commons  introduced,  for  another 
qualifying  subscription,  wherein  the  subscriber 
declared  it  was  not  lawful  upon  any  pretence 
to  take  arms  against  the  King ;  abhorred  the 
traitorous  position  of  taking  arms,  by  his  au- 
thority, against  his  person;  and  renounced  the 
covenant  as  imposing  no  obligation  upon  him  or 
any  others,  and  unlawful  in  itself.  Any  clergy- 
man who  should  not  fully  conform  to  this  act 
by  St.  Bartholomew's  day,  which  was  about 
three  months  after  it  was  published,  was.  ipso 


XVHI.J 


CHARLES  II. 


467 


Jacto,  to  be  deprived  of  his  cure ;  and  the  act 
was  so  worded  as  not  to  leave  it  in  the  King's 
power  to  dispense  with  its  observance. 

It  was  rigorously  enforced,  and  about  two 
thousand  ministers  were  deprived.  The  measure 
was  complained  of,  as  an  act  of  enormous  cruelty 
and  persecution ;  and  the  circumstance  of  its 
being  fixed  for  St.  Bartholomew's  day  gave  the 
complainants  occasion  to  compare  it  with  the 
atrocious  deed  committed  upon  that  day  against 
the  Huguenots  in  France.  They  were  careful 
not  to  remember  that  the  same  day,  and  for  the 
same  reason,  (because  the  tithes  were  commonly 
due  at  Michaelmas,)  had  been  appointed  for  the 
former  ejectment,  when  four  times  as  many  of 
the  loyal  clergy  were  deprived  for  fidelity  to 
their  sovereign.  No  small  proportion  of  the 
present  sufferers  had  obtained  their  preferment 
by  means  of  that  tyrannical  deprivation:  they 
did  but  now  drink  of  the  cup  which  they  had 
administered  to  others.  Not  a  few  had  been 
deeply  implicated  in  the  guilt  of  the  rebellion. 
But  this  ill  consequence  was  sure  to  follow,  from 
a  measure  not  otherwise  impolitic,  and  fully  jus- 
tified by  the  circumstances  of  the  times,  that 
while  from  the  pride  of  consistency,  and  from 
conscientious  scruples,  some  men  of  genuine 
piety  and  exemplary  worth  were  expelled  from 
a  Church,  in  the  service  of  which  they  were 
30 


468  CHARLES  D.  [chat. 

Avorthy  to  have  held  a  distinguished  rank ;  others 
retained  their  benefices,  who  would  have  been  a 
reproach  to  any  Church,  and  to  whom  it  was 
matter  of  indifference  what  they  subscribed,  and 
whether  they  took  the  covenant  or  renounced  it. 
Reynolds  was  among  the  better  and  wiser  minds 
who  conformed ;  he  accepted  the  see  of  Norwich. 
That  of  Hereford  was  refused  by  Baxter,  and 
that  of  Lichfield  by  Calamy  :  how  strongly  the 
latter  was  attached  to  his  party  is  proved,  by  the 
dishonourable  manner  in  which  he  attempted  to 
promote  its  cause ;  the  stronger  intellect  and 
more  ingenuous  temper  of  the  former  were 
clouded  by  old  prejudices,  petty  scruples,  and  the 
perpetual  sense  of  bodily  infirmities,  which  made 
his  protracted  life  little  better  than  one  long 
disease. 

The  Nonconformists  having  so  recently  been 
masters  could  not  easily  be  convinced  they  were 
a  very  small  and  a  very  odious  minority.  They 
expected  that  the  display  of  their  numbers 
would  make  the  government  feel  it  necessary  to 
conciliate  them  by  some  concessions,  and  that 
there  would  be  a  difficulty  in  supplying  the  pul- 
pits from  which  they  were  excluded.  Being  dis- 
appointed in  both  expectations  they  deliberated 
whether  it  was  not  expedient  for  them  to  follow 
the  example  of  their  predecessors,  and  shaking 
the  dust  of  England  from  their  feet,  migrate  into 


.win.] 


CHARLES  II. 


469 


Holland,  or  into  the  American  colonies,  where 
their  brethren  were  established,  and  the  first  dif- 
ficulties of  colonization  had  been  overcome.  If 
the  Government  had  been  conducted  upon  any 
settled  and  steady  system  of  sound  policy,  it  would 
have  encouraged  them  in  this  intention,  and 
afforded  them  every  possible  facility  and  aid  for 
their  voluntary  removal.  But  on  the  part  of  the 
Court  there  was  neither  wisdom  nor  sincerity. 
Lord  Clarendon,  the  wisest,  because  the  most  up- 
right of  all  statesmen,  was  counteracted  in  his 
views  by  dark  intrigues,  and  selfish  interests. 
And  a  course  of  apparent  inconsistency  was  pur- 
sued, the  secret  object  of  which  was  by  sometimes 
harassing  the  Nonconformists,  and  sometimes  rais- 
ing their  hopes,  to  keep  up  their  state  of  excite- 
ment, and  hold  them  together  as  a  party,  till, 
through  their  means,  a  toleration,  which  should 
include  the  Papists,  might  be  brought  about,  and  a 
way  prepared  for  the  re-establishment  of  Popery 
in  the  plenitude  of  its  power,  its  intolerance,  and 
its  abominations. 

The  King,  whether  at  that  time  he  understood 
or  not  the  end  which  was  proposed,  was  prevail- 
ed upon  therefore  to  set  forth  a  Declaration, 
wherein  his  own  disapproval  of  any  severities  on 
the  score  of  religion  was  expressed,  and  a  hope 
held  out  that  the  laws  upon  that  matter  would  be 
amended  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  his  subjects, 


470 


CHARLES  II. 


[chap. 


This  gave  new  spirits  to  the  Nonconformists,  as  it 
was  designed  to  do.  But  however  much  they 
might  desire  indulgence  for  themselves,  they 
could  not  yet  be  brought  to  think  it  lawful  or 
tolerable  that  any  should  be  granted  to  the  Pa- 
pists ;  and  the  general  feeling  of  the  country  was 
equally  against  both  :  if  there  was  any  difference, 
it  was  that  the  Catholics  were  regarded  with  the 
more  fear,  the  Puritans  with  the  more  abhor- 
rence. There  was  undoubted  danger  from  both : 
that  from  the  Papists  was  the  greatest,  but  it 
was  the  most  remote.  They  had  not  only  the 
fixed  design,  but  the  steady  hope  and  prospect 
of  setting  up  again  the  Papal  authority  in  Eng- 
land ;  a  scheme,  which  the  conversion  of  the 
Duke  of  York,  and  the  indifference,  if  not  the  in- 
clinations of  the  King,  appeared  to  render  feasi- 
ble ;  which  the  multiplicity  of  schisms,  induced 
by  the  rebellion,  favoured  ;  and  in  the  pursuit  of 
which  they  could  rely  upon  the  secret  aid  of 
all  Catholic  powers,  and  the  open  assistance  of 
France,  if  ever  it  should  be  required.  The  dan- 
ger from  the  Puritans  was  not  of  any  far-sighted 
and  long  concerted  policy  ;  but  of  some  execrable 
plot,  or  insane  insurrection,  which  a  few  despe- 
rate fanatics  might  be  frantic  enough  to  plan  and 
execute  without  the  knowledge  of  their  fellow 
sectaries,  but  in  reliance  upon  the  principle  of  dis- 
affection, which  was  common  to  them  all.  Go- 


XVIII.] 


CHARLES  II. 


471 


vernment  was  fully  aware  that  such  plots  were  car- 
rying on,  and  it  was  deemed  a  necessary  measure  of 
precaution  to  exact  an  oath  from  the  sequestered 
ministers,  declaring  that  it  was  not  lawful,  on  any 
pretence,  to  take  arms  against  the  King,  or  any 
commissioned  by  him  ;  and  that  they  would  not  at 
any  time  endeavour  an  alteration  in  the  govern- 
ment of  the  Church  or  State.  They  who  re- 
fused to  make  this  declaration  were  not  to  come 
within  five  miles  of  any  city  or  borough,  or  of  the 
Church  which  they  had  been  accustomed  to 
serve. 

The  five  mile  act,  as  it  is  called,  was  impolitic, 
because  it  brought  into  discussion  the  question 
of  resistance,. . .  a  question,  which,  it  has  been  well 
said,  subjects  ought  never  to  remember,  and 
rulers  never  to  forget ;  and  it  was  injurious,  be- 
cause it  required  a  declaration  concerning  Church 
government,  which  it  was  quite  certain  that  no 
Dissenter  could  conscientiously  take.  But  this  ob- 
jectionable clause  afforded  a  just  and  welcome 
reason  for  refusing  the  oath,  to  those  who  might 
otherwise  have  thought  it  expedient  to  swallow 
the  political  part  and  digest  it  as  they  could.  The 
more  severe  the  measure,  the  better  it  accorded 
with  the  public  feeling;  and  the  occurrences  of 
those  times  were  such  as  to  justify  as  well  as 
quicken  the  apprehensions  and  the  jealousy  of 
the   Government.    For  the   remains  of  the  re- 


472 


FIRE  OF  LONDON. 


[chap. 


publican  party  were  seeking  to  take  advantage 
of  the  Dutch  war,  and  once  more  throw  the  king- 
dom into  confusion  and  anarchy,  that  they  might 
again  try  the  experiment  of  their  beloved  com- 
monwealth. Algernon  Sidney  was  soliciting  for 
this  purpose  money  from  Fiance,  and  men  from 
Holland  ;  consultations  had  been  held  with  Lud- 
low concerning  the  enterprise  ;  and  there  were 
enough  of  Cromwell's  officers  ready  to  set  their 
lives  upon  the  hazard.  A  conspiracy  was  detect- 
ed, for  which  eight  persons  were  convicted.  They 
had  all  been  officers  and  soldiers  in  the  rebellion, 
all  were  Levellers,  and  they  confessed,  at  their 
execution,  that  there  was  an  intention  of  setting 
London  on  fire,  on  the  second  of  September,  that 
being  found  by  Lilly's  almanack,  and  a  scheme 
erected  for  that  purpose,  to  be  a  lucky  day,  a 
planet  then  ruling  which  prognosticated  the  down- 
fal  of  monarchy.  The  men  were  executed  in 
April ;  their  confession  was  published  in  the  ga- 
zette at  the  time ;  and  on  the  day  which  they 
had  specified  the  fire  of  London  broke  out.  If 
this  were  mere  coincidence,  it  is  surely  the  most 
remarkable  one  in  history. 

The  people  nevertheless  were  persuaded  that 
London  had  been  burnt  by  the  Papists,  and  the 
public  authorities  partook  or  assented  to  their  cre- 
dulity. The  odium  which  this  senseless  calumny 
raised,  was  kept  up  by  men  of  great  talents  and 


JAMES  11. 


473 


consummate  profligacy,  who,  from  having  been 
the  wickedest  ministers,  became  the  wickedest 
Opposition  that  ever  dishonoured  this  kingdom. 
The  infamous  affair  of  the  Popish  plot  carried  it 
to  its  height,  but  the  subsequent  re-action  had 
well  nigh  brought  about  the  triumph  of  the  Ro- 
mish cause.  Never  were  the  civil  and  religious 
liberties  of  England  in  greater  danger  than  when 
an  opposition  which  had  so  lately  directed  the 
multitude  at  its  will,  and  whose  object  it  had 
been,  by  means  of  popular  delusion,  in  every 
possible  way  to  annoy  the  King,  and  embarrass 
the  Government,  (not  without  a  hope  of  over- 
throwing both,)  found  themselves  at  once  as  de- 
void of  support  and  strength,  .as  they  were  of 
character  and  principle,  and  saw  the  whole  autho- 
rity of  the  state  delivered  over  as  it  were  by  ac- 
clamation into  the  King's  hands.  Every  thing  then 
seemed  to  conspire  in  favour  of  the  Romanists. 
And  when  Charles  terminated  his  dissolute  life 
and  disgraceful  reign  in  the  communion  of  the  Ro- 
mish Church,  and  his  brother  who  was  not  only 
an  avowed  but  a  zealous  Papist  succeeded  to  the 
throne,  they  considered  their  ascendency  to  be  se- 
cure. 

If  Charles  ever  seriously  intended  to  prepare 
the  way  for  that  ascendency,  the  manner  in  which 
he  disposed  of  the  church  preferment  tended 
effectually  to    counteract   his   intentions.  The 


474 


TAMES  II. 


[chap. 


clergy  whom  he  promoted  were,  with  few  excep- 
tions, men  of  the  greatest  ability  and  worth, 
armed  at  all  points  for  controversy,  munificent  in 
bounty,  powerful  in  preaching,  exemplary  in  their 
private  lives,  and  in  the  whole  course  of  their  pub- 
lic conduct  conscientious  and  consistent.  While 
they  taught  and  believed  that  Government  is  of 
divine  right,  and  that  passive  obedience  is  the  re- 
ligious duty  of  the  subject,  they  neither  regarded 
the  Sovereign  as  despotic,  nor  the  people  as  slaves, 
knowing  that  their  obedience  was  due  to  the  laws 
of  the  land,  and  not  to  the  mere  will  and  plea- 
sure of  an  arbitrary  ruler.  They  could  not  be  in- 
sensible to  their  danger  from  a  Popish  successor  ; 
and  yet  when  the  .Bill  of  Exclusion  was  brought 
forward,  and  their  .influence  as  a  body  might  have 
turned  the  scale,  they  adhered  to  the  principle  of 
constitutional  loyalty,  and  the  Bishops,  without 
one  exception,  voted  against  it.  Towards  the  Pa- 
pists and  the  Nonconformists,  or  Dissenters,  as  they 
now  began  to  be  called,  their  conduct  was  firm  and 
dignified  ;  they  regarded  the  points  of  difference 
between  them  as  essential,  and  therefore  admit- 
ting of  no  compromise. 

The  Dissenters  had  always  been  supported 
by  some  unprincipled  statesmen,  who  despised 
them  while  they  used  them  as  their  instruments. 
Shaftesbury  and  Buckingham  did  then  as  Leices- 
ter had  done   in  Elizabeth's  days.     By  the  en- 


XVH1.] 


JAMES  II. 


475 


couragement  which  they  thus  received,  by  just 
so  much  persecution  as  rouses  a  natural  and  ge- 
nerous spirit  of  resistance,  and  by  the  zeal  and 
activity  which  such  circumstances  excite,  they 
became  a  recognised,  and  not  an  inconsiderable, 
party  in  the  State,  and  that  which  had  been  an 
acute  was  converted  into  a  chronic  disease.  The 
better  part  of  their  character  appeared  when  it 
was  their  turn  to  suffer;  in  fact,  both  among  mi- 
nisters and  people  none  but  the  better  members 
were  left,  who,  for  the  sake  of  what  they  believed 
to  be  their  duty,  were  willing  to  incur  the  danger 
of  hopeless  imprisonment.  The  oppression  to 
which  they  had  been  subjected  was  not  that 
which  driveth  wise  men  mad ;  it  was  such  as 
sobered  those  who  had  run  wild  in  the  inebriety 
of  success.  The  crazier  sects  disappeared  ;  and 
lay  preaching,  from  which  so  many  evils  had 
arisen,  was  no  longer  heard  of,  except  among  the 
Quakers,  who  suffered  more  from  the  laws  than 
all  the  other  sects  collectively,  and  who,  laying 
aside  their  more  outrageous  follies,  were  now 
settling  under  a  discipline,  which  rendered  them 
from  the  most  extravagant  the  most  orderly  of 
men. 

The  scheme  of  making  the  Dissenters  instru- 
mental to  the  re-establishment  of  Popery  was 
well  concerted ;  and,  as  far  as  concerned  them, 
it  was  successful.    The  only  reason    for  which 


476 


JAMES  II. 


[chap. 


they  had  left  the  Church  of  England  was  because 
it  did  not,  in  their  opinion,  depart  sufficiently 
from  the  Church  of  Rome ;  and  among  the  of- 
fences of  which  they  had  accused  Laud  and 
Charles  L,  one  was,  that  the  Primate  had  fa- 
voured certain  Priests  who  were  in  prison,  and 
that  the  King  had  not  ordered  them  to  execution. 
The  danger  from  Popery  had  then  been  imagi- 
nary, it  was  now  real  and  imminent :  they,  how- 
ever, stood  aloof  from  the  struggle,  and  left  the 
clergy  to  maintain  the  Protestant  cause  from  the 
pulpit  and  the  press.  The  clergy  were  equal  to 
this  duty.  How  earnestly  James  was  bent  upon 
his  purpose  was  plain  from  the  constraint  which 
he  put  upon  his  own  feelings  Avhen  he  con- 
descended to  court  the  Dissenters,  and  what  the 
consequences  of  his  success  would  be,  none, 
whose  judgement  was  not  biassed  by  self-in- 
terest, could  possibly  doubt.  Even  the  plan  of 
St.  Paul's  church  is  said  to  have  been  altered 
by  James's  interference,  and  the  side  oratories 
added,  in  despite  of  Sir  Christopher  Wren's  re- 
monstrances, for  the  secret  purpose  of  rendering 
it  more  convenient  as  a  Roman  Catholic  place  of 
worship.  The  Romanists  proceeded  in  the  full 
assurance  of  success;  and  while  addresses  for  a 
general  indulgence  were  obtained  from  some  of 
the  Nonconformists,  from  some  of  the  old  dis- 
senting officers  and  soldiers,  and  from  a  few  ser- 


XVIII.] 


JAMES  II. 


477 


vile  corporations  and  companies,  (even  the  Cooks 
presented  one  !)  what  indulgence  was  to  be  ex- 
pected under  a  Catholic  government  was  shown 
by  the  persecution  of  the  Protestants  in  France. 
When  the  French  clergy  thanked  Louis  XIV.  for 
having  rooted  out  heresy  from  his  dominions  in 
that  persecution,  (which,  regarded  in  all  its  cir- 
cumstances, is  the  mo^t  atrocious  in  European 
history,)  they  added,  that  one  further  glory  was 
reserved  for  him,  that  of  lending  his  aid  to  reduce 
England  into  the  pale  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

The  better  to  secure  his  end,  James  promoted 
in  the  Church  such  persons  as  he  thought  would 
be  most  pliable  ;  the  few  who  were  found  so 
had  been  equally  compliant  when  the  Puritans 
were  in  power.  He  published  directions  to  the 
Archbishops  to  prohibit  the  clergy  from  preach- 
ing on  controversial  points.  To  have  obeyed  that 
prohibition  when  the  principles  of  the  establish- 
ment were  incessantly  attacked,  would  have  been 
consenting  to  its  overthrow  ;  and  they  did  their 
duty  in  repelling  those  attacks,  and  exposing  the 
frauds  and  corruptions  of  the  Romish  Church. 
The  King  then  had  recourse  to  another  method, 
which  was  likely  to  be  more  effectual.  He  ap- 
pointed a  Commission  for  inquiring  into,  and  pu- 
nishing ecclesiastical  offences ;  the  Commissioners 
being  empowered  to  summon  persons  of  any  rank 
in  the  Church,  and  punish  them  by  suspension. 


478 


SANCROFT. 


[CHAr. 


privation,  and  excommunication,  "  notwithstanding 
any  laws  or  statutes  of  the  realm."'  The  Primate, 
and  the  Bishops  of  Durham  and  Rochester,  were 
named  members  of  this  court,  and  there  were 
four  Lay  Commissioners,  of  whom  Jefferies  was 
one. 

Of  the  two  Bishops,  one  was  timid,  the  other 
time-serving,  and  had  been  promoted  for  that 
qualification.  But  Sancroft,  the  Primate,  was  a 
man  of  sterling  worth,  and  seventy  years  had  not 
abated  the  vigour  of  his  understanding,  nor  the 
strength  of  his  heart.  Having  satisfied  himself 
that  the  Commission  was  not  legal,  and  that  even 
if  it  were  otherwise,  he  could  not  legally  be  com- 
pelled to  act  in  it,  he  declined  the  appointment 
upon  the  plea  of  his  infirmities.  The  new  Bishop 
of  Chester  was  nominated  in  his  stead,  and  San- 
croft was  in  such  expectation  of  being  cited  be- 
fore this  tribunal  for  declining  to  bear  a  part  in 
it,  that  he  prepared  a  protest  against  its  juris- 
diction. About  this  time  he  received  a  letter 
from  the  Princess  of  Orange,  expressive  of  her 
satisfaction  at  hearing  that  the  English  Clergy 
were  as  firm  to  their  religion  as  they  had  always 
been  to  their  King,  and  her  confidence  that  God 
would  still  preserve  the  Church  which  he  had 
provided  with  such  able  men.  He  told  her  in 
his  reply  that  she  had  put  new  life  into  a  dying 
old  man.  ready  to  sink  under  the  double  burthen 


JAMES  II. 


479 


of  age  and  sorrow ;  and  that  such  consolation 
never  could  have  come  more  seasonably.  "  It 
hath  seemed  good  to  the  infinite  wisdom,"  said 
he,  "  to  exercise  this  poor  Church  with  trials  of 
all  sorts,  and  of  all  degrees ;  but  the  greatest 
calamity  that  ever  befell  us  was,  that  it  pleased 
God  to  permit  wicked  and  ungodly  men,  after 
they  had  barbarously  murdered  the  father,  to 
drive  out  the  sons  from  abiding  in  the  inheritance 
of  the  Lord,  as  if  they  had  said  to  them,  Go  and 
serve  other  gods.  The  dreadful  effects  whereof 
we  still  feel  every  moment,  but  must  not,  nay,  we 
cannot,  particularly  express.  And  though  all 
this  (were  it  yet  much  more)  cannot  in  the  least 
shake  or  alter  our  steady  loyalty  to  our  sovereign 
and  the  royal  family,  in  the  legal  succession  of  it, 
yet  it  imbitters  the  very  comforts  that  are  left 
us,  it  blasts  all  our  present  joys,  and  makes  us 
sit  down  with  sorrow  in  dust  and  ashes.  Blessed 
be  God,  who,  in  so  dark  and  dismal  a  night,  hath 
caused  some  dawn  of  light  to  break  forth  upon 
us  from  the  eastern  shore,  in  the  constancy  and 
good  affection  of  your  Royal  Highness  and  the 
excellent  Prince  toward  us  ;  for  if  this  should  fail 
us  too,  which  the  God  of  heaven  and  earth  forbid, 
our  hearts  must  surely  break." 

The  measures  of  the  Court  were  such  at  that 
time  as  to  justify  the  darkest  forebodings.  A 
Papist  was  appointed  Dean  of  Christ  Church. 


480 


JAMES  II. 


and  the  King  dispensed  with  his  taking  the  oaths. 
A  noble  stand  against  a  similar  nomination  was 
made  by  the  Fellows  of  Magdalen  Coliege,  and 
though  the  new  Court  of  Commission  exerted 
its  power,  and  expelled  them,  the  resistance 
which  had  there  been  made  produced  a  strong 
effect  upon  the  nation.  At  Cambridge  also  the 
King  was  opposed  with  equal  firmness,  and  when 
he  sent  his  mandamus  requiring  them  to  receive 
one  of  his  priests,  a  Benedictine,  as  Master  of 
Arts,  they  unanimously  refused  to  obey.  One 
aggression  followed  another  ;  the  laws  had  plied 
before  the  King ;  and  if  the  Clergy  had  yielded 
also,  the  civil  and  religious  liberties  of  England 
would  have  been  laid  at  his  feet.  But  he  found 
in  them  a  steady  and  principled  resistance,  and 
when  he  issued  an  order  in  Council  requiring 
the  Clergy  to  read  in  all  their  pulpits  a  Declara- 
tion for  Liberty  of  Conscience,  the  point  was 
brought  to  an  issue,  and  those  liberties  depended 
upon  the  event. 

In  this  declaration  James  suspended  all  penal 
laws  on  matters  of  religion,  abolished  all  tests, 
and  declared  all  his  subjects  equally  capable  of 
employments  in  his  service.  If  this  assumption 
of  authority  were  admitted,  the  constitution  in 
Church  and  State  would  receive  its  death-blow  ; 
the  Government  would  be  made  arbitrary,  and 
the  establishment  papal.    Sancroft  consulted  with 


XVIII.] 


THE  SEVEN  BISHOPS. 


481 


the  most  eminent  clergy  who  were  within  reach, 
and  sent  a  circular  letter  to  others,  requesting 
them  to  come  to  London  with  all  convenient 
speed,  and  not  let  it  be  known  that  they  were 
thus  summoned.  Among  the  more  distinguished 
of  an  inferior  rank  who  assembled  were  Tillot- 
son,  Stillingfleet,  and  Sherlock.  They  began 
with  prayer,  and  they  concluded  their  delibera- 
tions by  drawing  up  a  petition,  beseeching  that 
the  King  would  not  insist  upon  their  distributing 
and  reading  his  Declaration.  Their  great  averse- 
ness  to  it,  they  said,  proceeded  neither  from  any 
want  of  duty  or  obedience  to  him,  the  Church 
of  England  being  both  in  her  principle  and  con- 
stant practice  unquestionably  loyal ;  nor  from  any 
want  of  due  tenderness  to  Dissenters,  in  relation 
to  whom  they  were  willing  to  come  to  such  a 
temper  as  might  be  thought  fit,  when  that  matter 
should  be  considered  and  settled  in  Parliament 
and  Convocation ;  but  chiefly  because  that  Decla- 
ration was  founded  upon  such  a  dispensing  power 
as  had  often  been  declared  illegal,  and  particu- 
larly at  the  beginning  of  his  reign ;  and  Avas  of 
so  great  moment  to  the  whole  nation,  both  in 
Church  and  State,  that  they  could  not  in  pru- 
dence, honour,  or  conscience,  so  far  make  them- 
selves parties  to  it  as  the  distribution  of  it,  and 
the  solemn  publication,  even  in  God's  house,  and 
the  time  of  divine  service,  must  amount  to  in 
vol.  n.  31 


482 


THE  SEVEN  BISHOPS.  [chap. 


common  and  reasonable  construction.  The  peti- 
tion was  signed  by  the  Primate,  by  Lloyd,  Bishop 
of  St.  Asaph  ;  Turner,  of  Ely  ;  Lake,  of  Chiches- 
ter ;  Ken,  of  Bath  and  Wells  ;  White,  of  Peter- 
borough ;  and  Trelawney,  of  Bristol. 

Sancroft  was  in  an  ill  state  of  health,  and, 
moreover,  had  been  forbidden  to  appear  at  court 
for  the  displeasure  which  he  had  previously 
given  by  his  firmness.  The  other  six  immedi- 
ately crost  the  water  to  present  it  at  Whitehall. 
The  King  had  been  flattered  into  a  persuasion 
that  they  came  to  represent  to  him  that  orders  of 
this  kind  were  usually  addressed  to  their  chan- 
cellors, not  to  themselves,  meaning  thus  to  shift 
off  the  responsibility,  and  save  their  credit  by  a 
subterfuge,  while  they  yielded  the  point.  Lloyd, 
however,  requested  that  the  President  of  the 
Council  would  peruse  the  petition,  and  inform 
the  King  of  its  purport.  .  The  President  refused 
to  do  this,  but  obtained  their  immediate  admit- 
tance into  the  royal  closet,  where  they  delivered 
it  upon  their  knees.  The  King  took  it  graci- 
ously, and  upon  glancing  at  the  writing,  said,  it 
is  my  Lord  of  Canterbury's  own  hand.  But  his 
countenance  darkened  as  he  read,  and  folding  up 
the  paper,  he  said  to  them,  "  this  is  a  great  sur- 
prise to  me !  These  are  strange  words.  I  did 
not  expect  this  from  you.  This  is  a  standard  of 
rebellion." 


xfih.]  THE  SEVEN  BISHOPS.  483 

They  answered  that  they  had  adventured  then- 
lives  for  his  Majesty,  and  would  lose  the  last 
drop  of  their  blood,  rather  than  lift  up  a  finger 
against  him.    I  tell  you,  he  repeated,  this  is  a 
standard  of  rebellion.    I  never  saw  such  an  ad- 
dress.   Trelawny  knelt  a  second  time,  and  ex- 
claimed, Rebellion!    Sir,  I  beseech  your  Majesty 
do  not  say  so  bad  a  thing  of  us  !  your  Majesty 
cannot  but  remember  that  you  sent  me  down  into 
Cornwall  to  quell  Monmouth's  rebellion,  and  I 
am  as  ready  to  do  what  I  can  to  quell  another  if 
there   were  occasion.    Ken  said  he  hoped  the 
King  would  give  that  liberty  to  them,  which  he 
allowed  to  all  mankind  ;  to  which  White  added, 
Sir,  you  allow  liberty  of  conscience  to  all  man- 
kind; the  reading  this  Declaration  is  against  our 
conscience.     Do   you    question    my  dispensing 
power?  said  the  King.    Some  of  you  here  have 
printed  and  preached  for  it,  when  it  was  for  your 
purpose.    The  dispensing  power  was  never  ques- 
tioned by  the   men  of  the  Church  of  England. 
To  this  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph  replied,  that  it 
had  been  declared  against  by  the  first  Parliament 
of  the  late  King,  and  by  that  which  he  himself 
had  called :  and  when  James  insisted  that  they 
should    publish    his    Declaration,    and    was  an- 
swered by  Bishop  Ken  in  language  as  dutiful  as 
it  was  resolute,  "  we  are  bound  to  fear  God  and 
honour  the  King ;  we  desire  to  do  both  ;  we  will 
31 


484 


THE  SEVEN  BISHOPS. 


honour  you ;  we  must  fear  God."  "  Is  this," 
said  the  indignant  monarch,  "  what  I  have  de- 
served, who  have  supported  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, and  will  support  it  ?  I  will  remember  you 
that  have  signed  this  paper!  I  will  keep  this 
paper;  1  will  not  part  with  it.  I  did  not  expect 
this  from  you,  especially  from  some  of  you.  I 
will  be  obeyed  in  publishing  my  Declaration." 
To  this  Ken  replied,  God's  will  be  done!  and 
when  the  King  exclaimed,  what  is  that  ?  he  re- 
peated the  emphatic  words.  This  memorable 
scene  was  terminated  by  the  King's  saying,  "  if 
I  think  fit  to  alter  my  mind,  I  will  send  to  you. 
God  hath  given  me  this  dispensing  power,  and  I 
will  maintain  it.  I  tell  you  there  are  seven  thou- 
sand men,  and  of  the  Church  of  England  too, 
that  have  not  bowed  the  knee  to  Baal."  And 
with  that  he  dismissed  them. 

The  King  was  miserably  mistaken  concerning 
the  principles  of  the  clergy.  There  were  only 
four  in  London  who  read  the  Declaration,  not 
more  than  two  hundred  throughout  the  whole 
kingdom  :  and  after  the  King  had  thus  expressed 
his  displeasure,  copies  of  the  petition  were  sub- 
scribed by  the  Bishops  of  London,  Norwich, 
Gloucester,  Salisbury,  Winchester,  and  Exeter. 
After  nine  days  of  perplexity  and  indecision, 
James,  yielding  to  evil  counsellors  and  his  own 
unhappy  bigotry,  summoned  the  seven  first  sub- 


XVIIt.] 


JAMES  II. 


scribers  to  appear  before  him  in  council,  and 
answer  to  a  charge  of  misdemeanor.  They  ap- 
peared accordingly,  acknowledged  their  subscrip- 
tions, and  being  asked  what  they  meant  by  the 
dispensing  power  being  declared  illegal  in  Par- 
liament, replied  the  words  were  so  plain  that 
they  could  use  no  plainer.  It  was  demanded  of 
them  what  want  of  prudence  or  honour  there 
could  be  in  obeying  the  King?  They  replied, 
"  what  is  against  conscience  is  against  prudence, 
and  honour  too,  especially  in  persons  of  our 
character;''  and  when  they  were  asked  why  it 
was  against  their  conscience,  they  answered  be- 
cause our  consciences  oblige  us  (as  far  as  we  are 
able)  to  preserve  our  laws  and  religion  accord- 
ing to  the  Reformation.  Upon  other  questions 
they  referred  to  their  petition,  requested  they 
might  be  excused  from  replying  to  points  which 
might  be  brought  against  them,  and  desired  a 
copy  of  the  charge,  and  convenient  time  for  ad- 
vising about  and  answering  it.  They  were  then 
required  to  enter  into  recognizances  for  appear- 
ing in  Westminster  Hall  :  this  they  refused  to  do, 
on  the  ground  that  it  was  not  usual  for  members 
of  the  House  of  Peers ;  declaring,  however,  that 
they  should  be  ready  to  appear  and  answer  when- 
ever they  were  called.  Many  attempts  were  made 
to  make  them  yield  upon  this  point,  but  they  con- 
tinued firm,  in  conformity  to  the  legal  advice  which 


486 


JAMES  II. 


[CHAr. 


they  had  taken,  and  were  in  consequence  commit- 
ted to  the  Tower. 

Popular  feeling  has  seldom  been  more  strongly, 
never  more  worthily,  excited,  than  on  this  memo- 
rable occasion.  The  news  spread  immediately 
through  London,  and  as  the  Bishops  proceeded 
down  the  river  to  their  place  of  confinement,  the 
banks  were  crowded  with  spectators,  who,  while 
they  knelt  and  asked  their  blessing,  prayed  them- 
selves for  a  blessing  upon  them  and  their  cause. 
The  very  soldiers  who  guarded  them,  and  some 
even  of  the  officers  to  whose  charge  they  were 
committed,  knelt  in  like  manner  before  them,  and 
besought  their  benediction.  They  the  while, 
strictly  consistent  in  the  meek  and  magnanimous 
course  of  duty  which  they  had  chosen,  exhorted 
the  people  to  fear  God,  honour  the  King,  and 
maintain  their  loyalty.  In  the  evening  they  at- 
tended in  the  Tower  chapel ;  and  the  second  les- 
son for  that  service  being  the  chapter  wherein  the 
Apostle  Paul  describes  by  what  trials  he  approved 
himself  a  minister  of  God,  and  in  the  name  of  the 
Lord  says,  "  I  have  heard  thee  in  a  time  accepted, 
and  in  the  day  of  salvation  have  I  succoured  thee  ; 
behold,  now  is  the  accepted  time  ;  behold  now  is 
the  day  of  salvation  :"  the  application  was  felt  by 
the  prisoners  and  by  the  nation,  all  feeling  it  as 
consolatory,  and  perhaps  not  a  few  regarding  it  as 
prophetic. 


XVIII.] 


JAMES  II. 


487 


A  leading  man  among  the  dissenters  had  been 
one  of  the  chief  advisers  of  this  impolitic  act. 
The  King's  confessor,  father  Petre,  could  not 
conceal  his  joy,  that  an  irremediable  breach  was 
thus  made  with  the  Church  of  England,  and  he  is 
said  to  have  expressed  his  triumph  in  language 
worthy  of  Gardiner  or  Bonner  in  the  days  of  their 
ascendency.  Louis  XIV.  also  applauded  what  had 
been  done,  and  assured  the  English  Ambassador 
that  he  was  ready  to  give  the  King  all  manner  of 
assistance.  Encouraged  thus  by  evil  counsellors, 
and  deluded  as  much  by  bigotry,  as  by  a  reliance 
upon  the  strength  of  his  own  government,  and  the 
covenanted  aid  of  France,  James  did  not  perceive 
that  of  all  modes  of  resistance  to  his  designs  he  had 
provoked  the  most  dangerous.  The  persons  with 
whom  he  had  placed  himself  at  issue,  were  for 
their  character  and  station  the  last  with  Avhom  he 
should  have  sought  to  contend  ;  their  appeal  was 
to  the  laws  and  constitution  of  the  country,  and 
upon  a  question  where  the  religion  of  the  country 
was  at  stake. 

On  the  first  day  of  term  the  Prelates  were 
brought  before  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  being 
conveyed  as  usual  by  water.  They  were  saluted 
with  acclamations  as  they  went,  and  with  fervent 
prayers ;  and  in  their  way  from  the  river-side  to 
Westminster  Hall,  passed  through  a  lane  of  peo- 
ple, who  kissed  their  hands  and  their  garments. 


JAMES  II. 


[chap. 


and  begged  their  blessing.  About  thirty  peers 
and  a  considerable  number  of  gentry  attended 
them  into  court.  After  some  legal  objections  had 
been  offered  and  overruled,  they  pleaded  not 
guilty  to  the  charge  of  having  consulted  and  con- 
spired to  diminish  the  royal  authority,  preroga- 
tive and  power,  and  having  to  that  intent,  un- 
lawfully, maliciously,  seditiously,  and  scandal- 
ously, composed  a  false,  feigned,  pernicious,  and 
seditious  libel,  in  manifest  contempt  of  the  King 
and  the  laws.  That  day  fortnight  was  fixed  for 
the  trial,  and  they  were  then  admitted  to  bail, 
upon  their  own  recognizances.  The  ignorant  po- 
pulace seeing  them  thus  at  liberty  regarded  it  as  a 
deliverance,  and  celebrated  it  with  public  rejoic- 
ings. Bonfires  were  made  in  the  streets,  and 
healths  drank  to  the  Seven  Champions  of  the 
Church,  with  an  enthusiasm  which  might  have 
taught  the  King  his  danger. 

St.  Peter's  day  happened  to  be  the  time  ap- 
pointed for  the  trial,  and  it  was  supposed  that 
some  of  James's  superstitious  advisers  had  chosen 
it  as  a  day  of  /good  omen,  when  the  influence  of 
the  apostle  might  be  expected  in  behalf  of  his 
Roman  successors.  The  counsel  for  the  prelates 
availed  themselves  of  all  those  forms  and  techni- 
calities which  the  law  of  England  provides  in 
favour  of  the  accused.  They  required  proof  that 
the  signatures  to  the  petition  were  in  their  own 


XV11I.] 


THE  SEVEN  BISHOPS. 


489 


writing,  and  that  the  petition  had  been  presented 
to  the  King  with  their  knowledge  and  consent ;  a 
clerk  of  the  Privy  Council  proved  the  first,  by  at- 
testing that  they  themselves  had  owned  their  sub- 
scriptions ;  but  upon  the  latter  they  must  have 
been  acquitted  if  it  had  not  been  recollected  in 
time  that  the  Earl  of  Sunderland  had  introduced 
them  to  the  King,  to  deliver  the  obnoxious  paper. 
It  was  fortunate  for  them  and  for  England,  that 
these  subterfuges  were  unavailing,  that  the  case 
was  brought  to  a  fair  hearing,  and  their  defence 
rested  upon  its  proper  grounds.  The  petition, 
their  counsel  then  maintained,  was  neither  false 
nor  libellous :  it  was  humbly  and  respectfully  ex- 
pressed, and  presented  privately,  in  the  exercise  of 
their  right  as  subjects,  of  their  duty  as  bishops. 
The  charge  against  them  was  for  attempting  to 
diminish  the  King's  prerogative:  the  only  part 
of  his  prerogative  to  which  the  petition  referred 
was  his  dispensing  power;  and  that  was  a  power 
they  contended  which  the  King  of  England  nei- 
ther did  nor  could  possess.  Such  a  power  would 
strike  at  the  very  foundation  of  all  the  rights, 
liberties,  and  properties  of  the  subject.  If  the 
King  might  suspend  the  laws  of  the  land  con- 
cerning religion,  there  was  no  other  law  which  he 
might  not  suspend ;  and  if  he  might  suspend  all 
the  laws,  in  what  condition  then  were  the  sub- 
jects? all  at  his  mercy.    The  King's  legal  pre- 


490 


THE  SEVEN  BISHOPS. 


[chap. 


rogatives  were  as  much  for  the  advantage  of  his 
subjects  as  of  himself,  and  no  man  disputed  them ; 
but  they  who  attempted  thus  to  extend  his  pre. 
rogative  beyond  what  was  legal,  did  him  no  ser- 
vice. The  laws  which  were  now  in  question  were 
the  great  bulwark  of  the  reformed  religion.  They 
are  in  truth,  said  Serjeant  Pemberton,  that  which 
fenceth  the  religion  and  Church  of  England,  and 
we  have  no  other  human  fence  besides.  They 
were  made  upon  a  foresight  of  the  mischiefs  that 
had,  and  might  come  by  false  religions  in  this 
kingdom  ;  and  they  were  intended  to  defend  the 
nation  against  them,  and  to  keep  them  out :  par- 
ticularly to  keep  out  the  Romish  religion,  which 
is  the  very  worst  of  all  religions.  By  the  law  of 
all  civilized  nations,  said  Somers,  "  if  the  prince 
require  something  to  be  done  which  the  person 
who  is  to  do  it  takes  to  be  unlawful,  it  is  not  only 
lawful,  but  his  duty,  rescribere  principi.  This  is  all 
that  is  done  here,  and  that  in  the  most  humble 
manner  that  can  be  thought  of.  Seditious  the 
petition  could  not  be,  because  it  was  presented 
to  the  King  in  private  and  alone  :  false  it  could 
not  be,  because  the  matter  of  it  was  true.  There 
could  be  nothing  of  malice,  for  the  occasion  was 
not  sought,  the  thing  was  pressed  upon  them  ;  and 
a  libel  it  could  not  be,  because  the  intent  was  in- 
nocent, and  they  kept  within  the  bounds  set  by 
the  act  of  Parliament  that  gives  the  subject  leave 


THE  SEVEN  BISHOPS. 


491 


to  apply  to  his  Prince  by  petition  when  he  is 
aggrieved." 

The  Chief  Justice  Sir  Robert  Wright  declared 
the  petition  libellous;  of  the  three  puisne  judges, 
Allybone  delivered  the  like  opinion:  Holloway 
and  Powel  pronounced  it  to  be  no  libel,  and  the 
latter  stated  in  strong  terms  that  the  King  pos- 
sessed no  dispensing  power,  and  therefore,  that 
the  Declaration,  being  founded  upon  the  assump- 
tion of  such  a  power,  was  illegal.  The  trial  lasted 
the  whole  day,  and  at  evening  the  jury  retired. 
They  were  persons  in  respectable  circumstances, 
and  fairly  chosen;  for  James  made  no  attempt 
to  control  or  pervert  the  course  of  justice.  They 
were  loud  and  eager  in  debate  during  great  part 
of  the  night;  food  and  drink,  according  to  custom, 
were  not  allowed  them,  and  when  they  begged 
for  a  candle  to  light  their  pipes,  that  indulgence 
was  refused.  At  six  in  the  morning  the  single 
juryman  who  had  till  then  held  out,  (and  who  is 
said  to  have  been  the  King's  brewer,)  yielded  to 
the  determination  of  his  fellows,  and  a  verdict  of 
not  guilty  was  returned.  It  was  received  with  a 
shout  which  seemed  to  shake  the  Hall.  The 
people  had  not  conducted  thcniFelves  with  pro- 
priety during  the  trial  ;  they  had  insulted  the 
witnesses  for  the  prosecution,  and  evinced  a 
temper  ready  for  greater  outrages.  Their  exul- 
tation was  unbounded  now ;   and  the  acquittal 


492 


JAMES  II. 


[chap. 


was  announced  in  the  city,  by  acclamations  of 
tumultuous  and  triumphant  joy,  which  outstript 
the  speediest  messengers.  The  prelates,  with  a 
feeling  of  becoming  gratitude,  went  immediately 
to  Whitehall  Chapel  to  return  thanks;  all  the 
churches  were  filled  with  people  who  crowded  to 
them  for  the  same  intent;  the  bells  runs*  from 
every  tower,  every  house  was  illuminated,  and 
bonfires  were  kindled  in  every  street  Medals 
were  struck  in  honour  of  the  event,  and  portraits 
hastily  published,  and  eagerly  purchased,  of  men 
who  were  compared  to  the  Seven  Golden  Candle- 
sticks, and  called  the  Seven  Stars  of  the  Protestant 
Church. 

The  King  was  in  the  camp  at  Hounslow  when 
the  verdict  was  pronounced,  and  asking  the  cause 
of  a  stir  among  the  soldiers,  was  told  it  was  no- 
thing but  their  rejoicing  for  the  acquittal  of  the 
Bishops.  "Do  you  call  that  nothing?"  he  re- 
plied ;  "  but  so  much  the  worse  for  them  !"  His 
presence  in  some  degree  repressed  them ;  but  no 
sooner  h;  d  he  left  the  camp,  than  they  set  up  a 
shout,  which,  if  further  evidence  had  been  need- 
ful, misrht  have  told  him  how  impossible  it  was 
for  him  to  overthrow  the  laws  and  the  religion  of 
England.  His  eyes  were  not  yet  opened  to  his 
danger ;  and  persisting  in  his  purpose,  he  dis- 
missed the  two  Judges  who  had  delivered  their 
opinion  in  favour  of  the  Bishops,  and  required. 


XVIII.] 


JAMES  II. 


493 


through  the  Ecclesiastical  Commissioners,  the 
names  of  all  the  clergy  who  had  omitted  to  read 
his  Declaration.  This  was  so  far  from  intimi- 
dating them,  that  even  of  those  who  had  read  it, 
no  small  proportion  declared  from  the  pulpit  their 
disapprobation  of  what  they  had  read.  And  upon 
this  occasion  Sprat,  the  Bishop  of  Rochester,  who 
had  hitherto  acted  in  the  commission,  withdrew 
from  it,  saying  in  a  letter  he  could  act  in  it  no 
longer :  for  though  he  had  obeyed  the  order  of 
council  himself,  thinking  himself  bound  in  con- 
science so  to  do,  he  doubted  not  that  those  who 
had  not  obeyed,  acted  upon  the  same  principle  of 
following  their  conscience,  and  he  would  rather 
suffer  with  them,  than  concur  in  making  them 
suffer.  This  conduct  in  a  prelate  who  had  been 
thought  too  pliant  to  the  court,  made  the  com- 
missioners adjourn,  and  events  soon  put  an  end  to 
that  illegal  jurisdiction. 

Sancroft  did  not  rest  satisfied  with  his  deliver- 
ance, in  the  belief  that  he  had  sufficiently  dis- 
charged the  duty  of  his  high  station.  He  had 
shown  himself  ready  to  suffer,  and  he  now  came 
forward  with  equal  resolution  to  act.  Admoni- 
tions to  the  Clergy  were  issued  by  him  through 
their  respective  Bishops,  in  which  they  were  en- 
joined four  times  at  least  a  year,  according  to  the 
canon,  to  "  teach  and  inform  the  people,  that  all 
usurped  and  foreign  jurisdiction  had  been  for 


494 


JAMES  11. 


[CHAE. 


most  just  causes  taken  away  and  abolished  in  this 
realm,"  and  that  no  subjection  was  due  to  it,  or 
to  any  who  pretended  to  act  by  virtue  of  it ;  but 
"the  King's  power  being  in  his  dominions  highest 
under  God,"  the  instructions  were,  that  "  they 
upon  all  occasions  persuade  the  people  to  loyalty 
and  obedience  to  his  Majesty  in  all  things  lawful, 
and  to  patient  submission  in  the  rest,  promoting, 
as  far  as  in  them  lay,  the  public  peace  and  quiet 
of  the  world.  They  were  to  caution  them  against 
all  seducers,  and  especially  against  Popish  emis- 
saries, who  were  now  in  great  numbers  gone 
forth,  more  busy  and  active  than  ever;  and  to 
impress  upon  them  that  it  was  not  enough  for 
them  to  be  members  of  an  excellent  Church, 
rightly  and  duly  reformed  both  in  faith  and  wor- 
ship, unless  they  also  reformed  and  amended  their 
own  lives,  and  so  ordered  their  conversation  in 
all  things,  as  becomes  the  gospel  of  Christ.  And 
forasmuch  as  those  Romish  emissaries,  like  the 
old  Serpent,  are  wont  to  be  most  busy  and  trou- 
blesome to  our  people  at  the  end  of  their  lives, 
labouring  to  unsettle  and  perplex  them  in  time 
of  sickness,  and  at  the  hour  of  death ;  that  there- 
fore all  who  have  the  cure  of  souls  be  more  espe- 
cially vigilant  over  them  at  that  dangerous  season; 
that  they  stay  not  till  they  be  sent  for,  but  inquire 
out  the  sick  in  their  respective  parishes,  and  visit 
(hem  frequently :  that  they  examine  them  parti- 


XVIII.] 


JAMES  DL 


495 


cularly  concerning  the  state  of  their  souls,  and 
instruct  them  in  their  duties,  and  settle  them  in 
their  doubts,  and  comfort  them  in  their  sorrows 
and  sufferings,  and  pray  often  with  them  and  for 
them ;  and  by  all  the  methods  which  our  Church 
prescribes,  prepare  them  for  the  due  and  worthy 
receiving  of  the  Holy  Eucharist,  the  pledge  of 
their  happy  resurrection  :  thus  with  their  utmost 
diligence  watching  over  every  sheep  within  their 
fold,  (especially  in  that  critical  moment,)  lest 
those  ravening  wolves  devour  them."  Lastly, 
they  were  charged  to  walk  in  wisdom  toward 
those  who  were  not  of  their  communion,  confer- 
ring with  them  in  the  spirit  of  meekness,  and 
seeking  by  all  good  ways  and  means  to  win  them 
over ;  more  especially  with  regard  to  their  bre- 
thren the  Protestant  Dissenters,  "  that  upon  oc- 
casion offered  they  visit  them  at  their  houses,  and 
receive  them  kindly  at  their  own,  and  treat  them 
fairly  wherever  they  meet  them,  discoursing 
calmly  and  civilly  with  them  ;  persuading  them, 
if  it  may  be,  to  a  full  compliance  with  our  Church  ; 
or  at  least  that  '  whereto  we  have  all  attained,  we 
may  all  walk  by  the  same  rule,  and  mind  the 
same  thing.'  And  in  order  hereunto,  that  they 
take  all  opportunities  of  assuring  and  convincing 
them,  that  the  Bishops  of  this  Church  are  really 
and  sincerely  irreconcileable  enemies  to  the 
errors,  superstitions,  idolatries,  and  tyrannies,  of 


496 


JAMES  11. 


[chap. 


the  Church  of  Rome ;  and  that  the  very  unkind 
jealousies  which  some  have  had  of  us  to  the 
contrary,  were  altogether  groundless.  And  in 
the  last  place,  that  they  warmly  and  most  atlec- 
tionately  exhort  them  to  form  with  us  a  daily 
fervent  prayer  to  the  God  of  Peace,  for  the  uni- 
versal blessed  union  of  all  reformed  churches, 
both  at  home  and  abroad,  against  our  common 
enemies ;  that  all  they  who  do  confess  the  holy 
name  of  our  dear  Lord,  and  do  agree  in  the  truth 
of  his  holy  word,  may  also  meet  in  one  holy  com- 
munion, and  live  in  perfect  unity  and  godly 
love." 

The  more  moderate  and  reasonable  Dissenters 
were  now  awake  to  their  danger ;  they  saw  the 
condition  of  the  French  Protestants,  and  per- 
ceived that  nothing  but  the  calm  and  steady  op- 
position of  the  Church  of  England  prevented  the 
Romanists  from  regaining  a  supermacy  which  they 
were  as  ready  as  ever  to  abuse ;  for  they  had 
abated  nothing  of  their  fraud,  their  intolerance, 
or  their  inhumanity.  The  better  part,  therefore, 
felt  now  how  much  more  important  were  the 
points  in  which  they  agreed  with  the  Church 
than  those  on  which  they  differed  ;  and  the 
scheme  of  comprehension  was  revived  with  less 
improbability  of  success  than  on  any  former  oc- 
casion. But  the  course  of  events  brought  on  a 
more  violent  crisis  than  Sancroft,  who  had  this 


xvnr.] 


JAMES  II. 


497 


scheme  at  heart,  could  approve;  and  the  circum- 
stances which  ensued  made  him  who  was  most 
desirous  of  healing  one  schism,  unhappily  the  head 
of  another.  Men  who  were  more  of  statesmen 
than  divines,  and  who  had  less  confidence  than 
Sancroft  in  the  cause,  and  in  the  strength  of  un- 
yielding principles,  were  in  correspondence  with 
the  Prince  of  Orange;  and  preparations  were 
made  in  Holland  for  an  expedition,  on  which  the 
fate  of  the  Protestant  cause  depended.  When 
James  received  the  first  certain  intelligence  of 
this  danger,  he  turned  pale,  and  the  letter  dropt 
from  his  hand.  The  fear,  indeed,  which  then 
possessed  him,  was  manifested  as  plainly  by  his 
conduct  as  in  his  countenance;  he  published  a 
Declaration  that  he  would  preserve  the  Church  of 
England  inviolable,  that  he  was  willing  the  Ca- 
tholics should  remain  excluded  from  Parliament, 
and  that  he  was  ready  to  do  every  thing  else  for 
the  safety  and  advantage  of  his  loving  subjects. 
He  sent  also  for  the  Bishops,  whom,  as  persons 
lying  under  his  marked  displeasure,  he  had  not 
seen  since  their  trial,  and  receiving  their  general 
expressions  of  duty,  assured  them  of  his  favour. 
The  interview  ended  in  this;  but  the  Bishops 
requested  Sancroft  to  obtain  for  them  a  second 
audience,  in  which  they  might  address  the  King 
as  plainly  and  sincerely  as  their  duty  and  his  dan- 
ger required. 

vol.  ii.  32 


498 


JAMES  II. 


[chap. 


They  were  introduced  by  Sancroft  with  a 
speech  not  unworthy  of  the  occasion.  Illness 
had  prevented  him  from  attending  on  the  former 
summons ;  but  he  had  heard,  he  said,  from  the 
King  himself,  and  from  his  reverend  Brethren, 
that  nothing  had  passed  further  than  general  ex- 
pressions of  his  Majesty's  gracious  inclinations 
to  the  Church,  and  their  reciprocal  duty  and 
loyalty  to  him,  both  which  were  sufficiently 
understood  and  declared  before.  "  Sir,  I  found 
it  grieved  my  Lords  the  Bishops  to  have  come  so 
far  and  to  have  done  so  little  ;  and  I  am  assured 
they  came  then  prepared  to  have  given  your 
Majesty  some  more  particular  instances  of  their 
duty  and  zeal  for  your  service,  had  they  not  ap- 
prehended from  some  words  which  fell  from  your 
Majesty,  that  you  were  not  then  at  leisure  to  re- 
ceive them.  It  was  for  this  reason,  then,  that  I 
besought  your  Majesty  to  command  us  once  more 
to  attend  you  all  together.  We  are,  therefore, 
here  now  before  you,  with  all  humility,  to  beg 
your  permission  that  we  may  suggest  to  your 
Majesty  such  advices  as  we  think  proper  at  this 
season,  and  conducing  to  your  service,  and  so  leave 
them  for  your  princely  consideration."'  Then, 
with  the  King's  leave,  he  read  the  humble  advice 
of  himself  and  his  brethren,  which  was  to  this 
purport :  that  the  King  would  be  pleased  to  put 
the  government  of  the  several  countries  into  the 


XV11I.] 


JAMES  II. 


499 


hands  of  such  of  the  Nobility  and  Gentry  as  were 
legally  qualified;  that  he  would  annul  the  Eccle- 
siastical Commission,  and  that  no  such  court  as 
that  Commission  set  up  might  be  erected  in  fu- 
ture ;  that  no  dispensation  might  be  granted  or 
continued,  by  which  persons  not  duly  qualified 
by  law  might  hold  any  place  in  Church  or  State, 
or  in  the  Universities,  and  that  the  President  and 
Fellows  of  Magdalen  College  might  be  restored  : 
that  licenses  for  persons  of  the  Romish  Com- 
munion to  teach  public  schools  might  be  set 
aside,  and  none  such  granted  for  the  future  :  that 
his  Majesty  would  be  graciously  pleased  to  de- 
sist from  the  exercise  of  such  a  dispensing  power 
as  had  of  late  been  used,  and  permit  that  point 
to  be  freely  and  calmly  debated,  and  finally  set- 
tled in  Parliament  :  that  he  would  inhibit  the 
four  foreign  Bishops,  who  styled  themselves 
Vicars  Apostolical,  from  further  invading  the 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  which  is  by  law  vested 
in  the  Bishops  of  this  Church  :  (these  Romish 
prelates  had  been  recently  consecrated  in  the 
King's  Chapel,  and  sent  out  to  exercise  epis- 
copal functions  in  their  respective  dioceses, 
where  they  dispersed  their  pastoral  letters  under 
the  express  permission  of  the  King :)  that  he 
would  restore  the  ancient  charters,  privileges  and 
franchises,  to  those  Corporations  which  had  been 
deprived  of  them:  that  he  would  issue  writs  for 
32 


•JOO  JAMES  II.  [our. 

the  calling  of  a  free  and  regular  Parliament,  in 
Avhich  the  Church  of  England  might  be  secured 
according  to  the  Acts  of  Uniformity,  provision 
made  for  the  due  liberty  of  conscience,  and  for  se- 
curing the  liberties  and  properties  of  all  his  sub- 
jects, and  mutual  confidence  and  good  under- 
standing established  between  him  and  all  his 
people ;  above  all,  they  requested  that  he  would 
permit  them  to  offer  such  arguments  as,  they 
trusted,  might,  by  God's  grace,  be  effectual  for 
persuading  him  to  return  to  the  communion  of 
the  Church  of  England,  "  into  whose  most  catholic 
faith,"  said  they,  "  you  were  baptized,  and  in 
which  you  were  educated,  and  to  which  it  is  our 
daily  earnest  prayer  to  God,  that  you  may  be 
reunited.  These,  Sir,  are  the  humble  advices 
which  out  of  conscience  to  the  duty  we  owe  to 
God,  to  your  Majesty,  and  to  our  Country,  we 
think  fit  at  this  time  to  offer  to  your  Majesty,  as 
suitable  to  the  present  state  of  your  affairs,  and 
most  conducing  to  your  service ;  and  so  to  leave 
them  to  your  princely  consideration.  And  we 
heartily  beseech  Almighty  God,  'in  whose  hand 
the  hearts  of  all  kings  are,  so  to  dispose  and  go- 
vern yours,  that  in  all  your  thoughts,  words,  and 
works,  you  may  ever  seek  his  honour  and  glory, 
and  study  to  preserve  the  people  committed  to 
your  charge,  in  wealth,  peace,  and  godliness,  to 
your  own  both  temporal  and  eternal  happiness.'  " 


XVIII.] 


JAMES  II. 


The  paper  was  signed  by  Archbishop  Bancroft,  as 
his  composition  ;  and  by  the  Bishops  of  London, 
Winchester,  St.  Asaph,  Ely,  Chichester,  Roches- 
ter, Bath  and  Wells,  and  Peterborough,  as  hearti- 
ly concurring  in  it. 

Awakened  as  James  was  to  the  consequences 
of  his  own  imprudence,  he  received  this  advice  as 
if  he  were  sensible  of  its  value,  thanked  them  for 
it,  and  promised  to  observe  it.  The  promise  was 
sincere  ;  and  in  the  course  of  a  few  days  he  dis- 
solved the  Ecclesiastical  Commission,  re-esta- 
blished the  Fellows  of  Magdalen,  and  restored 
the  Corporations.  It  was  too  late:  the  nation 
felt  that  under  a  king  whose  conscience  was  not 
in  his  own  keeping,  there  could  be  no  safety 
against  the  ambition  of  a  restless  Church  which 
kept  no  faith,  and  held  principles  upon  which, 
by  the  strictest  reasoning,  persecution  becomes 
a  duty.  Some  further  security  than  promises,  or 
even  proofs  of  an  altered  system,  was  become 
needful  ;  what  that  security  should  be,  perhaps  no 
persons  knew  or  could  satisfy  themselves;  this 
only  was  apparent,  that  it  could  only  be  obtained 
through  the  interference  ©f  the  Prince  of  Orange, 
whose  close  alliance  with  the  royal  family  gave 
him  a  proper  interest  in  what  was  also  the  cause 
of  the  reformed  religion.  It  was  observed,  with 
just  jealousy,  that,  even  in  the  Declaration  which 
James  had  issued  in  pursuance   of  his  promise. 


502 


JAMES  II. 


[cHAr. 


he  had  spoken  of  the  Church  of  England  as  by 
law  established,  never  of  the  Protestant,  or  re- 
formed religion;  and  the  papistical  reservation 
Avas  clearly  understood,  which  looked  upon  the 
Popish  Church  still  as  the  lawful  one.  Even  the 
measure  of  summoning  the  Bishops  to  advise  the 
King  separately,  without  any  of  the  other  Peers, 
was  thought  to  be  a  device  for  rendering  them 
suspected,  and  weakening  their  influence  with 
the  nation.  And  this  effect  would  have  fol- 
lowed, if  Sancroft,  when  he  was  commanded  to 
compose  a  form  of  prayer  suited  to  the  existing 
danger  of  the  kingdom,  had  not  performed'  his 
difficult  task  with  such  excellent  discretion  as  at 
the  same  time  to  satisfy  the  King,  and  confirm 
the  people  in  their  constitutional  and  religious 
duty. 

As  the  danger  drew  nearer,  James  required  the 
Bishops  to  draw  up  a  paper  expressing  their  ab- 
horrence of  the  Prince  of  Orange's  intended  in- 
vasion ;  this,  he  insisted,  was  the  more  necessary, 
because  William  in  his  declaration  affirmed  that 
several  of  the  Lords,  spiritual  and  temporal,  had 
invited  him  to  England.  They  denied  having 
any  part  in,  or  knowledge  of,  such  an  invitation ; 
and  argued  that  the  very  clause  which  mentioned 
it,  rendered  the  authenticity  of  the  manifesto  sus- 
picious ;  for  if  the  thing  were  true,  it  would  be 
unwise  in  the  Prince  to  avow  it  so  soon:  and  if 


xvin.] 


.TAMES  II. 


503 


false,  it  could  hardly  be  imagined  that  he  would 
publish  a  manifest  untruth,  making  it  the  ground 
of  his  enterprise.  "  What,"  was  the  King's  in- 
dignant answer,  "  he  that  can  do  as  he  does, 
think  you  he  will  stick  at  a  lie?  You  all  know 
how  usual  it  is  for  men  in  such  cases  to  a/firm 
any  kind  of  falsehoods  for  the  advantage  of  their 
cause."  The  Prelates  had  here  to  steer  a  difficult 
course  ;  what  the  King  desired  was,  that  they 
should  put  forth  the  whole  influence  of  the 
Church  against  an  expedition,  which  was  under- 
taken for  the  preservation  of  that  Church  and  of 
the  Protestant  cause,  and  this  they  were  deter- 
mined not  to  do.  They  endeavoured  to  evade 
the  point,  by  saying  how  much  they  had  already 
suffered  for  interfering  with  matters  of  state. 
James  observed  that  this  was  not  to  the  purpose, 
and  that  he  thought  all  that  had  been  forgotten; 
that  it  concerned  him  more  to  have  the  Bishops 
issue  such  a  paper  as  he  required,  than  that  the 
temporal  Lords  should  do  it,  because  they  had 
greater  interest  with  the  people  ;  and  that  as  all 
London  would  know  what  he  had  asked  of  them, 
it  would  be  a  great  prejudice  to  his  affairs  if  it 
were  denied.  They  were  firm  to  their  purpose  ; 
the  place,  they  said,  in  which  they  could  best 
serve  him,  was  in  Parliament,  and  when  he 
should  please  to  call  one  he  would  find  that  the 
true  interest  of  the  Church  of  Englaud  is  insepa- 


f)04 


JAMES  II. 


[chap. 


rable  from  the  true  interest  of  the  Crown.  My 
Lords,  replied  the  King,  that  is  a  business  of 
more  time.  What  I  ask  now,  1  think  of  present 
concernment  to  my  ali'airs.  But  this  is  the  last 
time  :  I  will  urge  you  no  further.  If  you  will  not 
assist  me  as  I  desire,  I  must  stand  upon  my  own 
legs,  and  trust  to  myself  and  my  own  arms.  They 
made  answer  that  as  Bishops  they  did  assist  him 
with  their  prayers,  and  as  Peers  they  entreated 
that  they  might  serve  him,  either  by  his  speedily 
calling  a  Parliament,  or  if  that  were  thought  too 
remote,  by  assembling  with  them  as  many  of  the 
temporal  Lords  as  were  in  London,  or  its  vici- 
nity. But  this  would  not  answer  the  end  which 
James  purposed. 

It  was  not  known  that  the  Prince  of  Orange 
had  then  actually  effected  a  landing.  When  that 
intelligence  arrived,  the  Bishops  and  some  of  the 
temporal  Peers  assembled  at  Lambeth,  and  joined 
in  an  address  to  the  King,  stating,  that  under  a 
deep  sense  of  the  miseries  of  a  war  then  breaking 
forth  in  the  bowels  of  the  kingdom,  of  the  dan- 
ger to  which  his  person  was  thereby  like  to  be 
exposed,  as  also  of  the  distractions  of  the  people 
by  reason  of  their  present  grievances,  they 
thought  themselves  bound  in  conscience  of  the 
duty  which  they  owed  to  God,  to  their  holy  re- 
ligion, to  his  majesty  and  to  their  country,  to  re- 
present that,  in  their  opinion,  the  only  visible  way 


XVI11.] 


JAMES  II. 


505 


for  preserving  himself  and  the  kingdom,  would  be 
the  calling  a  parliament  regular  and  free  in  all  its 
circumstances.  His  reply  was :  What  you  ask 
of  me  I  most  passionately  desire  ;  and  I  promise 
you,  upon  the  faith  of  a  King,  that  I  will  have  a 
Parliament,  and  such  a  one  as  you  ask  for,  as 
soon  as  ever  the  Prince  of  Orange  has  quitted 
this  realm.  For  how  is  it  possible  a  Parliament 
should  be  free  in  all  its  circumstances,  as  you 
petition  for,  whilst  an  enemy  is  in  the  kingdom, 
and  can  make  a  return  of  near  an  hundred  voices? 
There  was  more  truth,  as  well  as  spirit,  in  this 
reply,  than  the  people  were  in  a  humour  to 
acknowledge.  But  James,  by  his  previous  mis- 
conduct, had  placed  himself  in  such  a  situation, 
that,  act  how  he  would  now,  it  was  impossible 
for  him  to  act  well.  He  was  beset  with  false 
counsellors,  and  faithless  friends,  as  much  as 
with  difficulties ;  and  though  sincere  enough  to 
sacrifice  every  thing  for  the  sake  of  his  religion, 
and  never  to  regret  that  sacrifice,  he  could  obtain 
no  credit  for  sincerity  in  any  profession,  or  pro- 
mises, or  pledges  to  his  people,  because  they  knew 
that  all  pledges  were  set  at  nought  if  the  interests 
of  the  Romish  Church  required  that  they  should 
be  broken. 

A  lew  days  afterwards  when  he  became  more 
sensible  of  his  extreme  danger,  he  summoned  a 
Parliament  ;  it  was  too  late  :  the  writs  had  not 


506  JAMES  II.  [chap. 

been  issued  when  he  fled  from  London,  and 
Sancroft,  with  other  spiritual  and  temporal  Peers 
joined  in  applying  to  the  Prince  of  Orange  to 
call  one.  Thus  far  the  Primate  aided  in  the 
revolution,  no  further.  When  James  was  brought 
back  to  Whitehall,  Sancroft  was  one  of  the  Pre- 
lates who  waited  on  him  there,  and  to  whom  he 
expressed  a  sense  of  their  dutiful  affection 
towards  him.  If  indeed  he  contrasted  the  con- 
duct of  Becket,  and  other  Popish  prelates, 
towards  his  predecessors,  and  that  of  the  puri- 
tanical clergy  toward  his  father,  with  the  steady, 
respectful,  dutiful  and  peaceful,  opposition  which 
he  had  himself  experienced  from  Sancroft  and 
his  brethren,  he  must  have  felt  the  value  of  that 
Church,  which  he  in  his  bigotry  had  endeavoured 
to  subvert.  Something  like  this  he  seems  to 
have  felt ;  and  one  of  the  first  letters  which  he 
wrote  from  France,  after  his  final  flight,  was  to 
the  Primate,  saying  that  he  had  intended  to  have 
laid  before  him  the  grounds  and  motives  of  his 
conversion  to  the  Roman  Catholic  religion,  but 
that  the  suddenness  of  his  departure  had  pre- 
vented it.  He  had  not  been  persuaded,  he  said, 
to  change  while  he  was  young;  the  conversion  had 
taken  place  in  his  riper  years,  and  on  the  full  con- 
viction of  his  mind ;  but  he  never  refused  speak- 
ing freely  with  those  of  the  Protestant  persua- 
sion, and  particularly  with  him.  whom  he  always 


XV1II.J 


THE  REVOLUTION. 


507 


considered  to  be  his  friend,  and  for  whom  he  had 
a  great  esteem.  If  James  had  conversed  upon 
these  subjects  with  Sancroft,  and  such  men  as 
Sancroft,  instead  of  the  Jesuits  with  whom  he 
was  surrounded,  happy  might  it  have  been  for 
himself,  and  his  family,  and  his  kingdoms. 

Upon  the  important  question  of  settling  the 
Government,  which  now  ensued,  the  great  body 
of  the  Clergy  agreed  in  opinion  with  the  Primate 
that  the  best  course  was  to  declare  the  King  in- 
capable of  the  Government,  and  to  appoint  the 
Prince  of  Orange  Custos  Regni,  to  carry  it  on  in 
the  King's  right  and  name,  I'  The  political  capa. 
city  or  authority  of  the  King,"  thus  Sancroft 
reasoned,  "are  perfect  and  cannot  fail;  but  his 
person  being  human  and  mortal,  and  not  other- 
wise privileged  than  the  rest  of  mankind,  is  sub- 
ject to  all  the  defects  and  failings  of  it.  He  may 
therefore  be  incapable  of  directing  the  govern- 
ment either  by  absence,  by  infancy,  by  lunacy, 
deliracy,  or  apathy,  whether  by  nature  or  casual 
infirmity:  or  lastly,  by  some  invincible  prejudices 
of  mind,  contracted  and  fixed  by  education  and 
habit,  with  unalterable  resolutions  superinduced, 
in  matters  wholly  inconsistent  and  incompatible 
with  the  laws,  religion,  peace  and  true  policy  of 
the  kingdom."  The  Archbishop  saw  that  James 
had  placed  himself  in  this  predicament,  and 
thinking  that  the  appointment  of  a  Regent  upon 


D08 


THE  REVOLUTION. 


[chap. 


these  grounds  was  the  only  just  course,  he  be- 
lieved it  therefore  to  be  the  only  wise  one.  "  For 
it  is  a  great  truth,"  said  he,  "  that  the  mind  and 
opinion  of  every  individual  person  is  an  ingre- 
dient into  the  happiness  or  ruin  of  a  government, 
though  it  be  not  discerned  till  it  comes  to  the 
eruption  of  a  general  discontent.  Things  just 
and  good  and  grateful  should  be  done  without 
expectation  of  immediate  payment  for  so  doing, 
but  in  the  course  and  felicity  of  proceedings 
wherein  there  will  certainly,  though  insensibly, 
be  a  full  return.  For  all  things  in  which  the 
public  is  concerned,  tend  constantly,  though 
slowly,  and  at  last  violently,  to  the  justice  of 
them:  and  if  avis  impressa  happens,  and  carries 
them  (as  for  the  most  part  it  doth)  beyond  or 
beside  what  is  just,  yet  that  secret  vigour  and 
influence  of  particular,  and  private  men's  inclina- 
tions, brings  them  back  again  to  the  true  perpen- 
dicular. And  whoever  he  is  that  hath  to  do  in 
the  public,  and  slights  these  considerations,  pre- 
ferring some  political  scheme  before  them,  shall 
find  his  hypothesis  full  of  flattery  at  the  first,  of 
trouble  in  the  proceeding,  and  of  confusion  in  the 
last." 

Thus  excellently  did  this  wise  and  upright 
man  reason;  but  he  soon  found  that  in  a  time  of 
political  troubles,  good  men  find  it  easier  to  sutFer 
than  to  act.    The  fear  of  doing  wrong  produced 


XVIII.] 


THE  REVOLUTION. 


509 


in  him  a  vacillation,  or  at  least  a  timidity  of  mind 
which  rendered  him  incapable  of  taking  a  decided 
part;  and  when  the  question  was  debated  in  the 
House  of  Lords,  whether  a  Regent  should  be  ap- 
pointed, and  the  throne  filled  up  as  being  vacant, 
Sancroft  was  not  present  at  the  debate.  His  pre- 
sence might  not  improbably  have  turned  the  scale, 
for  it  was  carried  against  a  regency  but  by  a  ma- 
jority ot  tvvo.  Only  two  Bishops  voted  for  fill- 
ing up  the  throne,  nine  against  it ;  and  when  the 
oath  of  allegiance  to  William  and  Mary  was  to  be 
taken  nine  Prelates  refused  to  take  it.  Among 
those,  who  thus  chose  to  incur  the  penalty  of  de- 
privation rather  than  transfer  that  allegiance, 
which  they  believed  to  be  indefeasible,  were 
Sancroft,  Ken,  Turner,  Lake  and  White,  five  of 
those  seven  to  whose  magnanimous  resistance  the 
nation  was  mainly  indebted  for  its  deliverance 
from  an  arbitrary  government,  and  a  persecuting 
religion.  About  four  hundred  of  the  Clergy 
followed  their  example.  The  great  body  agree- 
ing with  them  and  with  the  national  voice  as 
pronounced  in  Parliament,  that  Popery  is  incon- 
sistent with  the  English  constitution,  admitted 
the  justice  and  necessity  of  the  law  by  which  all 
Papists  were  for  ever  excluded  from  the  succes- 
sion to  the  crown. 

That  the  Nonjurors  judged  erroneously  must 
be  admitted ;  but  never  were  any  men  who  acted 


BW5020.S72  1825  v.2 
The  book  of  the  church. 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary-Speer  Library 


1  1012  00017  5168 


